Philip Morris - Right or
Wrong?
Con Philip
Morris
From an INVESTOR
In Stocks
You blew it.
Your self-congratulatory "makes some Foolish sense to me" regarding investing
in MO and donating profits to fight tobacco is a page right out of the platitudes
uttered by those you deride as Wise. Almost verbatim. Makes tremendous sense
-- make extra profit and give away the extra.
Don't lose sight of INVESTING. That means being a PART OWNER. Some people
understand this and ask themselves, "Would I go into business with these
people (those who run a particular company)?" Or, "Would I be comfortable
owning such a business?" If somebody doesn't feel that they would be willing
to open a "smokes" shop, either by themselves or in partnership with the
management of MO, then it would be speculating, not investing, for them to
purchase stock in MO.
The individual you quoted was mainly correct in his position that XON, IP,
etc may also be objectionable. (He failed however, in ascribing objections
to investing in MO to merely being an objection to smoking, a
"political-correctness.") The same standards of INVESTING logic should be
applied to them, and indeed to all companies. Just as some "Wise" shyed away
from XON and UK out of fear of profit loss, some INVESTORS said, "This behavior
is not acceptable to me - I would not behave in this manner, I would not
start a business with somebody who behaves in this manner."
And sure, no company is perfect, but your saying, "If you look close enough,
none are perfect" is silly. Since none are perfect, the worst are acceptable?
C'mon!
BTD (Foolish Four) is a mechanical system. If you understand how and why
it works, it becomes easy enough to capture its returns without causing internal
conflict. Yes it takes more than 15 minutes (the first time) but AS
SELF-APPOINTED INSTRUCTORS you should be exploring other options, not making
arguments that people should set their beliefs aside to follow a mechanical
system.
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