[Commons-Law] Noam Chomsky - A Neat Capitalist

[Patrice Riemens]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2006 at 11:48:05AM +0530, Hasit seth wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>    First, I like Noam Chomsky, so do not think this is posting is due
> to some hate stuff. I am not into any kind of hate stuff at all.

(...)


A quite interesting story to read. Depending on your degree of cynicism/ 
blaseness/ radical militantism it may make you sad, irrate, or simply 
laughing. There is no point arguing - or being surprised about - the fact 
that Noam Chomsky is a super-star. How that came about is stuff for (the 
very few alas, and yet it is an important social phenomenon) specialists 
of the subject to enquire and debate. But two things, immo, stand out: 
Noam wanted it this way, knowingly or uncontiously (probably a mix of 
both); and his options to do otherwise are pretty limited (of course he 
could give all his speaking fees straight away to charities/good causes - 
but ask yourself: would you? I would not!). So I won't discuss the all 
argument at length. There is one thing however that tickled me: his 
investments:

> But a funny thing happened on the way to the retirement portfolio.
> 
> Chomsky, for all of his moral dudgeon against American corporations,
> finds that they make a pretty good investment. When he made investment
> decisions for his retirement plan at MIT, he chose not to go with a
> money market fund or even a government bond fund. Instead, he threw
> the money into blue chips and invested in the TIAA-CREF stock fund. A
> look at the stock fund portfolio quickly reveals that it invests in
> all sorts of businesses that Chomsky says he finds abhorrent: oil
> companies, military contractors, pharmaceuticals, you name it.
> 
> When I asked Chomsky about his investment portfolio, he reverted to a
> "what else can I do?" defence: "Should I live in a cabin in Montana?"
> he asked. It was a clever rhetorical dodge. Chomsky was declaring that
> there is simply no way to avoid getting involved in the stock market
> short of complete withdrawal from the capitalist system. He certainly
> knows better. There are many alternative funds these days that allow
> you to invest your money in "green" or "socially responsible"
> enterprises.
> 
> They just don't yield the maximum available return.

Now the funny thing is: this is absolute BS! There are a good number of US 
"green/ socially responsive", bladibla investment funds who have 
consistently outperformed 'mainstream' funds on the middle-long run, some 
even on a year-to-year basis. And this is the case not only in the US, but 
in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and my country, the Netherlands. Strange 
isn't it? Maybe Professor Chomsky is not so a smart capitalist after 
all...

cheers (the Indian IMFL standard version ;-)
patrizio & Diiiinooos!