Socialist Ethics Associated with Investing?

[superborys]

Okay gents, I'm back which unfortunately means for you that I'm going to ask a question that I expect will divide this forum (as if we didn't already have enough of that problem).

Anyway, as September approaches, I'm expecting a refund check from the college I'm attending that should amount to roughly $4600, a princely sum for a college undergrad living at home. I will have roughly $3500 after necessities are dealt with, and I plan to invest it.

However, being a proselytizing socialist myself, I would not be comfortable with doing something overly capitalist, and that is where my question arises: Is investing in any way inherently capitalist/anti-socialist? Would investing be condemned in socialist circles?

I plan to invest mostly in foreign bonds with my money, but I perhaps would keep some mutual fund share and some ETFs and some domestic bonds.

I am at an ethical impasse here. I want to invest my money in bonds to counter inflation on a personal level and to make wiggle room for myself later in life, but I don't want to do something that would work against socialism.


Input/guidance greatly appreciated.

[roy]

you can't help but participate in the capitalist system. this definitely isn't going to set the cause back, anyway. go for it.

[The Jay]

Investment in a company is becoming an owner. Investing in a state is slightly different, but not too different. Buying bonds makes the state indebted to you, but doesn't give you ownership of the it. In this way it's simply money-lending with usury unless the state goes bankrupt and dissolves or refuses to pay the worth of the note, which is a risk of money-lending to anyone. Buying bonds, in my opinion, doesn't make you bourgeois since you aren't owning the means of production, but you may be considered a financial capitalist - well, a small one. I'm not sure exactly of what qualifies. Either way, don't worry about it. As long as you work to end the system, do what you must to get by.

[The Jay]

Investment in a company is becoming an owner. Investing in a state is slightly different, but not too different. Buying bonds makes the state indebted to you, but doesn't give you ownership of the it. In this way it's simply money-lending with usury unless the state goes bankrupt and dissolves or refuses to pay the worth of the note, which is a risk of money-lending to anyone. Buying bonds, in my opinion, doesn't make you bourgeois since you aren't owning the means of production, but you may be considered a financial capitalist - well, a small one. I'm not sure exactly of what qualifies. Either way, don't worry about it. As long as you work to end the system, do what you must to get by.

[mew]

don't worry about it. get the money.

[jookyle]

invest your money and then blow up a different investment company. don't want our prol cred to get hurt

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I don't see how you, an amateur (no offence) will make more than a few percent extra from investing in debt, currency or stocks, than if you just put it in the bank for a year.

Really, the risk-reward ratio for a non-trader is just not there to do this sort of stuff, so i'd just put your money in the bank, rake in 2 or 3% and relax, man.

[Positivist]

I don't see how you, an amateur (no offence) will make more than a few percent extra from investing in debt, currency or stocks, than if you just put it in the bank for a year.

Really, the risk-reward ratio for a non-trader is just not there to do this sort of stuff, so i'd just put your money in the bank, rake in 2 or 3% and relax, man.

This. Also buying bonds from reliable agents could work as profit is guaranteed (unless of course the agent goes bankrupt, hence why you'll need to do it in a reliable agent.)

[PC LOAD LETTER]

First off, communism is not a lifestyle.

As far as investment goes, you could do the safe option of a CD (certificate of deposit) through your bank (usually between 1 and 10 years), with a guaranteed APY (annual percentage yield). You could also try the "low-risk" option with mutual funds. Or, the extremely risky but potentially lucrative penny-stocks (like when JAMN spiked last year). The penny stocks are the ones you have to buy and sell quickly but are also the most likely to lose your money on.

[theblackmask]

$3500 is pocket change when it comes to investing. There's nothing inherently wrong in investing money, but I wouldn't expect to make much.

[A Marxist Historian]

First off, communism is not a lifestyle.

As far as investment goes, you could do the safe option of a CD (certificate of deposit) through your bank (usually between 1 and 10 years), with a guaranteed APY (annual percentage yield). You could also try the "low-risk" option with mutual funds. Or, the extremely risky but potentially lucrative penny-stocks (like when JAMN spiked last year). The penny stocks are the ones you have to buy and sell quickly but are also the most likely to lose your money on.

Essentially, for the small investor, investing is a form of gambling. For the big investor, who has connections in the system, can afford to hire reliable experts, etc., it is less so.

If you like gambling, by all means go for it, but don't be surprised if what happens to you is what happens when you hit Las Vegas.

Ethically speaking, since profit is profit is profit is surplus value extracted from the working class, either you do it or you don't, no reason for any ethical distinctions between different companies or whatnot. There are no "ethical" investments. No real difference between that fair trade organic food venture or a company making planes and bombs for the US government, except that you may be more likely to make money on #2, the one with normal capitalist ethics.

-M.H.-

[hatzel]

As an ethical socialist, it is imperative that you invest recklessly.