FYI: Vincent was different. By profession, he was a barber. But the guy was always scheming. One day, he was snipping away at my bangs (back when I had hair). That’s when he offered me a “business proposal.” He wanted to open a brothel in a northern Canadian mining town. “You have such an innocent face,” he said, “You would be the perfect guy to run it.”
I didn’t bolt from his shop. This was entertaining stuff for my 20 year-old ears. But I never went back to Vincent. Morally, he didn’t care where he put his money. He just wanted to make a profit, no matter what the cost
Regards,
Ted
https://assetbuilder.com/knowledge-center/articles/could-you-win-with-a-portfolio-of-sin
Comments
The article opens with prostitution – but that is not generally a sin according to the Old Testament (an exception would have been having sex with a temple prostitute of a competing religion), and might not even have been deemed a vice.
OTOH, certain foods (pork, shellfish) are proscribed by the “god of the book” (i.e. the god of the Jews, Christians and Muslims). To the extent certain restaurants (McDonalds, Red Lobster, etc) facilitate the eating of non-Kosher/non-halal food, they are promoting “sin” and the devout investor, probably should avoid investing in them.
As for gambling, I don’t believe any major religion designates that behavior as a “sin”. Though many reasonable people would label it a “vice”. Tobacco, unknown to the bronze-age civilizations of the Fertile Crescent, was not around to be proscribed by “god”, so isn’t a sin. Though again, most would call it a vice. Pushing sugary drinks (PEP, KO) & fatty, over-salted processed foods (any burger joint) are activities which are neither sins, nor vices, but are both major contributors to chronic diseases, pain, suffering, and premature death. Go figure.
Notably, the institution of human slavery was common in bronze-age civilizations, and “the god of the book” doesn’t prohibit it. So while adultery was a sin, slavery was not a “sin”, and in ancient societies was not a vice. Homosexuality was a “sin” - so presumably, investors wishing to avoid “sinful” companies, may wish to not invest in companies which are LGBTQ-tolerant? OTOH, perpetrating war on civilian populations was “god-approved” activity in the O.T. & by that wacky “Prophet” from Arabia. The Roman church proscribes artificial birth-control – even though no mention of these is made in the ancient texts – because condoms had not been invented.
My point: Injecting “sin” into investing decisions strikes me as exactly as useful as reading the entrails of birds in making investment decisions. As for investing in “vice” -- vices, to the extent they are engaged in voluntarily, strike me as exactly what a market-economy is about – namely, the voluntary exchange between 2 parties of shekels for a good or service. One man’s vice is another man’s (or woman’s) livelihood.