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Wealthiest 10% of US Households Responsible for 40% of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Study
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
416 points (95.8% liked)
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Do your part and recycle your plastics, peasants!
Flies away in private jet
A valid critique, but also worth mentioning, as discussed in the article, much of the GHG emissions for the top 10% (which includes households down to ~$200k) comes from passive income.
Friendly reminder to check who you bank with and what's in your 401k if you find yourself in that group.
https://youtu.be/NJ7W6HFHPYs - This video from Climate Town explains how the bank or credit union only keeps a fraction of your money in reserve when you deposit your money in a savings account, certificate of deposit, or other bank account. The bank/CU is investing the majority of your money, and ecological harm is not a consideration when they are choosing investments. When you deposit money with a financial institution it is almost certain that some portion of your money is being invested in ecologically harmful organizations.
Similarly, your 401k funds are likely in index funds or mutual funds that hold significant shares in ecologically and socially harmful companies like ExxonMobil, Nestle, Chevron, Coca-Cola, et. al.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment funds exist that ideally exclude ecologically & socially harmful industries, but every ESG fund I have ever encountered is not nearly exclusive enough and has significantly higher fees.
For example - the Vanguard ESG International Stock ETF VSGX excludes adult entertainment, recreational drugs, gambling, weapons, nuclear power, and fossil fuels, yet Nestle is the second largest holding in the fund, and many of the other stocks in the fund likely contribute to environmental and social harm indirectly.
Consider investing in small-businesses and organizations in your local community instead. It is truly bizarre and unique to our time that investing on Wall Street is more accessible than investing on Main Street.
By contributing to demand for a stock you increase the valuation of that stock. Securities Based Lending is often how companies and executives secure loans and avoid taxable events. By contributing to demand for a stock we facilitate additional funding for the issuer of the stock and it's largest shareholders.
I absolutely agree, cash flow is a much more immediate concern to any company, but one wealthy shareholder divesting can have the same financial impact as ten thousand average citizens boycotting. Local investing is more difficult and risky, but also more rewarding and necessary. It is not just about a monetary return, it is about building social capital and local resiliency.
You're arguing that people should give no consideration to the long-term social and ecological harms of their investments beyond what will make them the most money. By directing our actions in that purely incentivized way we sacrifice everything unprofitable, and that alienation is exactly what causes so many chronic societal issues. I agree that an individual can have very little impact alone, but capitalism places this burden at the individual level.
Except that scoreboard is exactly what they point to when they need a loan or other capital investment to grow their business. Better stock value = bigger/better loans.
Oh, and also the companies are able to release additional stock to raise capital outside of their IPO.
And their executives are rewarded for having high stock value.
This is about collective action, not just one or two people. You seem to be leaning heavily into the same excuses everyone uses when they don't want to do the right thing if it's even a small inconvenience. "Why should I do X when there's a bunch of other people doing Y? It'll never make a difference."
Sure, in a vacuum, you selling your stock in BP won't make a difference, but alternatively in a world where asset managers collections holding over $8 trillion in assets have pledged to divest from fossil fuels, the pool of people willing and able to buy up those shares is shrinking, and the more people who act the smaller the pool gets.
On this note:
I've got no idea where you went overboard here, but what I'm saying is, if the company in question is doing significant harm to the planet, don't invest. Not sure why you thought I meant invest later.
And if the moral argument against profiting from harmful industries isn't good enough for you, financially you're introducing risk to your portfolio by choosing to invest in companies that are at high risk of running into regulatory challenges and lawsuits globally.
Boy you sure are acting incredibly dense. You're acting like I'm implying normal investing guidance doesn't apply. Please stop making up worst case scenarios to try and justify supporting climate damage. I'm not saying dump all your money into a single solar stock somewhere.
There's literally hundreds of ETFs & mutual funds focused on avoiding the major polluting businesses. For example, just look at things like SPYX instead of SPY, etc. (Adding an extra bit to emphasize I'm using this as an example, not telling everyone to only invest in SPYX, because I can already see your response coming in laser focused on that one example). There's countless options, do some homework if you're investing, as you should be doing regardless of whether or not you care about the climate.
The one that's currently hardest is target date retirement funds which many use for their 401k. Not because there aren't enough options, but because many fund managers don't include those options in their offerings. Your hands may be tied but at least you looked. Contact your fund manager and let them know you're interested in ESG investing.
I'm not saying dump your money down the drain, but check if your investments can be moved somewhere less harmful.