is there any way to invest ethically as a sole individual? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 days ago by ricesoup@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33213155

I don't own much: My savings are around 50K$, money that now sits in the bank doing nothing.

I've been reading about what ETFs to invest into, but even those classified as climate friendly and social responsible include firms such as tesla, facebook, coca cola... not even close to being ethical.

Is there something akin to Michael Burry levels of ethical investment?

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[-] ctrl_alt_esc@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 days ago

Absolutely not true, if everyone collectively decided not to buy these companies' stocks anymore the price would drop and they'd get into financing problems.

[-] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Dude, that's not how it works at all!
Stock price is a popularity contest that has virtually no basis on the finances of a company.

See Tesla's crazy high price that has no basis on their current or future revenue. But if their stock dropped to 0, they would still be selling cars at a profit and wouldn't go out of business. It wouldn't change anything.

Companies get money from stock at IPO and when they extremely rarely issue new shares. That's it. After IPO, you buying stock doesn't give any money to the company. You are buying it from someone else.

[-] chaospatterns@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Executives have compensation tied to stock price. If the stock price goes down because nobody wants to invest in a bad company, those executives have incentive to become change their ways.

That compensation incentive is also why executives are so short term thinking nowadays.

The stock market is part popularity contest but it's a lot more complicated than simple statements.

this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025

55 points (93.7% liked)

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