(01-11-2014, 09:51 AM)hendi_alex Wrote: The one investment that totally disgusts me, gets mentioned oh so much. No one IMO can successfully defend a decision to invest in such a company, unless financial gain is the only criteria that counts. I know that most of you are ethical, caring individuals. Probably many are religious as well. Why isn't an investment in a business whose end product has zero social benefit, an industry that preys on human weakness, and exploits addiction and sentences users to early, very nasty death sentences, why isn't such totally outside the bounds of supporting? I for one simply cannot fathom this inconsistent behavior in what are otherwise very ethical, caring individuals. Are there no bounds, no restrictions, where making money is concerned? Everything is fair game? You know there is about a 20%-30% chance that your child will be part of the smoking crowd in high school. Do you really want to be supporting that activity?
PM is not forcing anyone to smoke. If they didn't offer cigs someone else would. Alcohol isn't good for you either but it doesn't seem to have the stigma that smoking does these days. I'm not sure why. It used to be the other way around(prohibition). Where do you draw the line? There is evidence that fatty/salty/sugary foods are addictive and they kill you too. Should I not invest in MCD? WMT sells a lot of these foods and cigs and alcohol as well. Should I avoid it? I don't see the tobacco companies as these big unethical companies. They are just providing a product that people want.
On the topic of TGT... I've been really disappointed/surprised it hasn't gone down more on this security breach. I wanted to open a position but wanted a higher yield.