opinion & features

Alana Lajoie-O'Malleythe dilemma of the young and idealistic

A few weeks ago I underwent one of the seminal sacraments of the young, secular, and relatively affluent:  I made my first payment to my group pension plan. I tried to get out of it. But I’ve been working in my job for a year now, and successes of labour movements past dictate that I am now required to take advantage of this ‘benefit’.  I’m told I’ll be really grateful for it in about 30 years.  Right now, I’m pretty freaked out.

My money is now contributing 0.0000000001% of the capital that some major energy company needs to expand oil sands production; or that some major pop brand needs to market its poison to my three-year-old nephew; or that a mining company needs in order to dispossess indigenous people of their lands and livelihoods.

Call me naive, but I’ve always taken the notion of ‘voting withy my dollars’ really literally.  When (and ideally only when) I need some kind of ‘thing’, I’ve taken seriously the responsibility of buying said ‘thing’ from someone whose work supports vibrant, resilient communities.  I’ve been far from perfect, but I try.  Somehow, being 0.0000000001% ‘owner’ of evil energy company X doesn’t quite sit right.

As I’ve whined about this predicament to my elders, some of whom are approaching the age of retirement with no retirement plan in sight, I have been most commonly greeted with patronising stares and words like “Well, you really do need to be grateful to have what I wish I did.  And, surely there are some ethical fund options you could choose from.”   Indeed, I am very lucky.  And, indeed, there are ‘ethical fund’ options I can use to appease my privileged conscience.

Ethical funds are basically mutual funds that apply screens on the investments they make.  Different funds apply different screens. For instance, some do not invest in companies that make more than a certain percentage of their income from the sale of tobacco or weapons. Others might include screens on child labour, screens on environmental practices, or screens on human rights issues.  Some funds take it a step further by actively using their stake in a particular company to pressure them to improve their practices.

I’m not sold.  The various ethical funds out there right now strike me as places in which to deposit money that are merely ‘less bad’ than your average investments.  They may invest in oil sands companies that use ‘better’ water-use practices.  They may make sure that the major pop brand in which they invest doesn’t hire children my nephew’s age.  They may even intervene at a mining company stakeholder meeting to ensure that said company provides at least a pittance of a compensation package before dispossessing indigenous people of their lands and livelihoods and turning a huge profit for the benefit of my golden years in Florida.  I mean, it’s only fair, right?

I’d rather my retirement nest egg be a bit more proactive than that – supporting local start-ups, enabling transitions to truly sustainable energy systems, helping groups that address poverty issues in my own city. Buying GICs at a credit union I trust seems to go a small part of the way in achieving this, but even they come nowhere close to the ideal.

Of course, the rate of return on these kinds of investments – the ones that really matter – won’t guarantee me that spot on the beach when my hair turns white.  But maybe I’m still young and idealistic enough to think that a healthier community to grow old in right here would be nicer any way.

– Alana Lajoie-O’Malley is the director of the Campus Sustainability Office at The University of Winnipeg. To comment on this or any other article in Outwords, write to letters@outwords.ca