Pretend your a hedge fund manager

Really. What if your job was as a hedge fund manager, or you had a private client? Your job would be to return 'profit' on investments. Seriously. No thought of social responsibility should effect your decisions. You have a simple job - make people who have money, more money. Just put yourself in that head for a moment. That is your job. To make more money for people who already have money. That's it. No complications.

Now, from that, without putting some conspiracy spin on everything, where do you come out?

Let me suggest you look at Planned Obsolescence. Now planned obsolescence in the article above is directed at manufacturing, but what if you use the same approach to investing? If you invest in a company that pollutes, wouldn't make sense to also invest in a company that does environmental remediation? In fact, if your customer was already invested in companies that were being sued and held pecuniarily liable, for instance the case of Asbestos Claims (Haliburton, for instance), would it not make sense to hedge against the losses and invest in the companies that will be paid to remediate the asbestos? Nation wide? And then, well, you might well want to invest that customers money in medical sectors such as the ones that patent a New Drug to Treat Asbestos Cancer?

That is my problem with 'Unbridled Capitalism' - it leads to non-sustainable activities for profits. I mean, I don't care if I damage the environment if I make money doing so, and then make money cleaning it up. Why would I? Short of some sort of ethic based on some sort of morality, which we don't seem to possess in the corporate world, why wouldn't I just plan to make old growth obsolete, and then invest in tree farms? Why make a safer car - just invest in acute for-profit medical care facilities. Why invest in other people's children's education - just invest in the for profit prison system, or the companies contracted to provide social services.

There was an old story, I don't how how true and I can't seem to find it right now, about a couple of rich guys sitting in their country club, probably out in the Hamptons somewhere. One of them is reading a newspaper, probably the Wall Street Journal, and tells his friend that an article says that heroin addiction is on the rise. And his friend replies, "What company makes syringes?" No need to feel social concern for the addicts and the ramifications of rampant addiction upon society - No, just how do I make money on the problem?

Gotta go for now. I'm still working on this, and I think it's related to my other question, "Why do I kill for your?" I haven't thought through the connection yet, but the answer is probably at the bottom line.

Back for a moment:

The point I guess I getting to, is maybe that is truly what is happening under this administration - planned obsolescence of America. Once we've destroyed America, well, we'll invest in China, or elsewhere - where we see the opportunity for greater profits. If you're not worried about the country, and you have the money to ensure your children live well regardless of what happens, well, why not?

Oh, via Chocolate Morphine comes this heads up: pissed off and proud of it (I'd post the picture, but I'm still ignorant on how to do fancy stuff like that, even though I've been told it's easy).  ¶ 6:57 AM