Submitted 5 months ago by Adderbox76@lemmy.ca to [deleted]
I think the private prison system is one of the worst institutions in the world. I think the reality of the stock market has no connection to capital reinvested into businesses vs shareholder dividends. Investments at this scale are not like giving a three person startup 2 million dollars. They’re not growing their businesses by putting it all into capex.
Are you an asshole for gambling on whether Trump will keep his word, using the systems in front of you? Dare I say it? No. You’re not.
Unless you got hundreds of thousands in assets to invest, you are only gambling on the suffering and slavery.
I say who the fuck cares what some Internet randos think. I bet you ten shares that more than a handful of the people taking about ethical conundrum didn’t even vote this past election.
The only thing that matters is can you live with it? If you can, go for it and make a buck working within the confines of Americans values because if you don’t, someone else will.
I’ll tell you that I don’t regret buying into the reddit IPO despite its various ethical scandals and going forward here my family and future matters more at this point than anything the average American days since they voted for all of this.
Nope. Name a company or even an investment that isn’t evil. Would you want to invest in it? If you tried to avoid all of them it would be a very difficult life.
In theory if you could use any profits to make counter-investments or buy enough stock to be able to influence them to move in a different direction then your strategy might be viable, but unless you literally just buy 1 share to be able to harass them at stockholder meetings then in all likelihood your money is doing more harm than good.
Best to just straight up invest in organizations that are effective in stopping these things and influencing policy against them.
The way I look at it, someone is going to profit off a that suffering, might as well be me.
That makes the world worse though. Do you really want to make the world a worse place?
My not owning shares of a company doesnt make them any less bad, at least if in own shares I can vote on who is elected to the board and what direction they take things.
If enough like minded people with money wanted to do to corecivic what elon musk did to Twitter the way to do that is by owning enough stock to do a hostile takeover and force the company to shut down.
I don’t think it’s bad to profit from the US economy even though some of those profits would end up being by very evil means. At least in that way, you don’t really have a choice as the economy is very interconnected.
But in this scenario you do have a choice, there are plenty of ways to invest and make money without going out of your way to be extra evil.
I would also ask yourself if this is beneficial at all.
Look at their historical prices. Investors have already bought into this.
Yes
Dsklnsadog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
The question of morality in investments is not absolute; it depends on how one frames responsibility and agency.
Markets are amoral tools. Financial markets operate independently of moral judgments. When individuals invest in an industry, they are not necessarily endorsing its practices but recognizing an opportunity within existing systems. One can argue that targeting an investment does not equate to creating or exacerbating the problems within that industry.
The existence of private prisons and deportation schemes reflects systemic issues, not individual investors. Policies and demand for incarceration stem from government choices and public sentiment. As such, targeting investors as “bad people” shifts focus away from the policymakers and institutions enabling these systems.
Some may justify these investments pragmatically: by securing financial stability, individuals can later support progressive causes, donate to charities, or fund organizations fighting for systemic change. For example, an investor might use the returns to support immigrant advocacy groups or lobby for prison reform.
There is algo “Separation of Investment and Values”. Not every decision must align with one’s ideological framework. People often compartmentalize their personal lives from their professional or financial strategies. A leftist could rationally engage in capitalism as a survival mechanism within an inescapable capitalist framework while still advocating for systemic change.
Many industries—tech, energy, or agriculture—have problematic practices, from exploitative labor to environmental harm. Singling out private prisons overlooks the broader complexity of investing in any sector. Most portfolios inadvertently include industries with ethical concerns, such as fossil fuels or fast fashion.
Defending this investment as not inherently immoral hinges on the premise that financial actions alone do not define someone’s character. Morality lies in how individuals balance their actions, mitigate harm, and contribute positively to society. However, ethical investments often require introspection and alignment with long-term values. While investing in private prison contractors can be defended on pragmatic or systemic grounds, it’s worth questioning whether the financial gain outweighs the potential ethical compromise.
SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
Hmmm, are you saying workers are alienated from each other via the market? Social relations are mediated by commodities and money??
I swear I’ve heard this somewhere before…
Dsklnsadog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Are you saying is not? When applied to investments, the abstraction becomes even more pronounced. As investors, individuals might focus on profit potential (commodities and returns) without directly engaging with or even acknowledging the human or social costs underlying those profits. The market acts as a buffer, depersonalizing the consequences and further alienating participants from the broader social implications of their actions.
So, yes—you’ve heard this before, and it’s a classic critique of how capitalism distorts and reframes human connections in terms of profit and exchange! Marx argues that under capitalism, commodities take on a life of their own, obscuring the labor and social relations that produced them. The true connections between people—worker to worker, worker to consumer—are hidden behind the veil of market exchange.