Betty by Gary Delainey and Gerry Rasmussen for August 12, 2023

You can make money on your investments or act holier than thou. Pick one.

How about investing in competent companies, then you can go ahead and donate your earnings to your favorite cause de jour

How about investing in companies that can make you the most profit?

Can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Giddity.

There are still enough companies which refuse to account for their mistakes even when they seriously affect people.

They starved to death…

if you’re that concern, invest in minted precious metals. at least you can feel somewhat secure that the source was ethical.

I have the same misgivings about many charities like Red Cross and United Way that are so top heavy with executive, board and managerial salaries that only a little bit of donations makes it to the recipients. I mean really, $1k martini lunches for United Way execs. (I was at the next table at the Peppercorn Duck Restaurant) and Red Cross shows up at the Hyatt Regency Skywalk disaster with a coffee wagon and Salvation Army shows up with blankets and volunteers (me included) for rescue and recovery. Red Cross and United Way execs are paid huge salaries and bonuses, but Salvation Army operates in the red every year. To be fair Red Cross has raised its Charity Watch rating to 89% and United Way is at 91.1 % now after reforms were forced on them. But…I still don’t trust they won’t revert to the side of greed when they think no one is watching.

Read Ray C. Anderson’s book “Confessions of a Radical Industrialist” where a business owner came to recognize that his business practices could be changed for the better, not only for the company but also for people and the environment. Good read.

Companies feel no shame. They can’t. People who run companies might feel shame. They won’t let that get in the way of profit, though.

Well. that leaves out the oil companies

They will be looking for a very long time, if they’re looking for a company with a sense of shame. There are a very few with morals.

Remember Google’s “Don’t be evil”?

Absolutely vote with your wallet, but be aware that many companies waste a lot of money just to give the illusion of being good folks. Even worse, many of the characteristics that some people think are good end up requiring evil methods to implement. DEI often requires deliberate sexism against men and deliberate racism against Whites or Asians. Even worse are the negative impacts to those companies when they abandon merit to implement DEI.