We all want to “do the right thing”. Well, the majority of humans on the planet do, at least. And yet we are surrounded by examples of people and organizations doing things we don’t quite like, or wouldn’t normally embrace. How does this happen? And what do we do about it?
I spent my formative years in the money management industry. I Invested pension fund monies for large organizations such as unions. The way this all works is that the average working person has an amount of money deducted from each paycheck that is then put into a large pooled account. This pooled account is then managed by “experts” to produce high rates of returns, and then when the employee retires they are guaranteed a nice tidy sum of money each month to support them in their retirement.
Whose money is it?
I was young and a bit naive at the time, extensively educated on what it meant to manage money, how to manage money with ethics and integrity, and what one should and shouldn’t do with large pools of assets that extensively belong to someone else. In the industry, it is referred to as “fiduciary duty”. It therefore struck me odd when I began meeting the board members of these unions, who were theoretically responsible for keeping us in integrity (monitoring our investment decisions etc.) – which means they were supposed to be looking out for their constituents – yet were in fact suggesting we do strange things with these monies.
Initially I believed these people were merely uneducated (yes, I, in my 20’s, arrogantly thinking these 40 – 70 year olds were all simply stupid). And I wondered how they could put such uneducated people on these boards. I have since come to realize that no, that is not really the case. Yes, of course, some times “stupid people” do get into positions of power. But more often than not, the criteria for getting a nice cushy seat on a board is who you know and what you are willing to do. “Normal” people don’t typically sit on boards. And if they do, they typically don’t last long. It’s highly draining witnessing the inner workings, and generally one does not want to be affiliated with the mess. Board members can get sued for “bad decisions”, after all.
“Ethical” Funds
During these years, one of the buzzwords of the day was “ethical funds”. Everyone wanted to invest in “ethical funds”. But what does that mean? Truly, find me a consistent definition. You can’t. No two people’s sense of what is ethical and moral is the same.
Is investing in pharmaceutical companies ethical? They find cures, right? That should be a good thing. They should therefore be on the top of the list for an ethical fund, right? Or is it unethical, because they create “clients”?
Are electric cars truly greener than the combustion engine? You have been told so. Certainly this concept is heavily marketed. Certainly there are some great technologies being used in modern cars that make them safer and more efficient. But what about the (environmental) cost to manufacture? What about the (environmental) cost to dispose of that battery once the car is no longer in use? What about the (environmental) cost to operate? The power has to come from somewhere. Worse still, did you know that electromagnetic forces affect your body? We all now acknowledge that cell phones affect us. Did you consider the effect on your body of sitting in an electric car for 5 hours straight? No, we don’t think about these things.
And then there’s the carbon tax….
Carbon. All of a sudden we are being told that carbon is “evil” – (and should be taxed lol). Humans… and animals…. breathe out carbon. We have been doing this on this planet since the beginning of time. This is part of life on the planet. Trees – you know the ones they keep cutting down to plant sugar cane.. wait …palm oil… wait ….poppies… whatever the “crop of the day is” – these trees NEED carbon. They absorb it. Who is cutting down these trees? Why is it permitted? We don’t have to be against logging entirely. But we can all agree that over- deforestation in specific regions affects the planet as a whole. We all breathe the same atmosphere. But by all means, let’s create an “exhale tax” and make people feel guilty for existing at all.
But the carbon is causing “climate change”
“The weather is wonky. We need to DO something!”
Yes, the weather is wonky. But WHY is the weather wonky? Perhaps there is more going on than meets the eye. For example, perhaps there are those who have a vested interest in the weather being wonky. If you traded commodity futures (crops – corn, wheat) on an exchange, for example, you might want rain to fall in certain regions and not others. Perhaps you might even go so far as to pay someone to “make it rain”.
Farmers are not the only ones that care about the weather. Insurance companies insure crops. They sometimes then create financial contracts that have value based on the outcome of a growing season. Yes, the farmer generally wants a good crop. But sometimes someone else makes money when that farmer has a bad crop. (less crops, higher prices).
As another example of weather incentives, what if you wanted to buy land cheap in certain region? You might want a draught in that area to persist for a number of years, and then you might want massive flooding to occur. This would certainly drive a lot of residents out of an area. And this would certainly make land cheap to acquire.
This may seem a little far fetched, but in reality, the technology to manipulate the weather has been in existence for over 50 years. Over this time, it has been constantly upgraded and perfected. Unfortunately, some of the side effects of weather manipulation is (not so “healthy”) particles being sprayed constantly in our skies that inevitably falls down onto our land and into our water supplies and cause great health concerns.
We always need to look at these issues from a much broader perspective than we have been doing in the past.
Perhaps there are arguments for managing our carbon footprint better. But the way I see it, there is so much more at play here. In order to have a real discussion about this entire issue, all the facts need to be on the table. There is a proverbial “elephant in the room” that no-one is talking about. Which makes any and all discussion on the topic rather meaningless.
Back to the start
So back to the original question.. ethics, whose ethics? Is is possible that two people can disagree on what is ethical and what is not simply because one or both do not have all the facts? In fact, is it possible we have been fed a bit of “disinformation” by “savvy marketers” who want us to embrace a certain way of thinking that does not serve our greater good?
Things are not what they seem. And “solutions” with a pretty name and great marketing rarely are what they seem. Often they are actually the opposite of what we really need, which serves to transfer more wealth and benefits to a select few who have pre-positioned themselves to benefit from these new policies and decisions.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant
Ultimately the solution is more “sunlight”. More information specifically with regards to the bigger picture. Greater perspectives. I find it interesting that for the little guy, there are some very stringent rules and regulations regarding disclosure of compensation agreements. For example, if you are marketing a product or service, you must disclose to someone that you do receive compensation if they make a purchase based on your recommendation.
So what about for the bigger issues? Should we not be getting full disclosure as to who is benefitting from this carbon tax? Or from the “weather wars?”. Or, for that matter, from the invasion of the middle east and beyond? Who made money? The answers are out there. But it is not focused on.