I am. I own shares in companies that make tanks and submarines. I'm also profitting from wire tapping. Am I a bad man?
I don't know; I guess its easier to declare yourself here as financially supporting such work in the world; the litmus test is, would you stand up and declare yourself an owner at a hospital where those maimed by tank/submarine weapons activity were recovering; would you declare yourself in a morgue where people were trying to identify their loved ones obliterated by tank weaponry. Would you attend a nonviolent rally and advocate this system of ownership if you knew that people living with the outcomes of such death-dealing product were also on the podium? Leaving aside the rudeness factor in doing the above the way I've descirbed it for a moment, if you are willing to do those things, then YOU probably don't think that they are bad in and of themselves, and, thus, probably don't think that you are a bad person. I know that we are all hypocrites; I pay my taxes. Thus, I support warmongering. Period. It's a sad state of affairs, but true. I do dialogue all the time with my representatives about pushing for L.I.T.E. taxation policy (line item taxation exemption), where the bare bones number for any federal budget piece is declared/negotiated, and each persons' bottom line percentages of tax owed towards those things can be declared, with a good portion remining to direct AS WE WISH. So, for example, maybe is a fixed percentage of 2% of the tax base that goes to defense, education//training etc. , but I have discretion over 39% of my tax money; I may want to put it all into education. I'd feel better about that approach than the one we have now, and I'd actually be prepared to leave out my perceptions of military funding beyond the coast guard and go to jail for that; my wife disagrees. But in that discourse we agree that there's a certain level of culpability in funding misadventure abroad through our tax money. So you may or may not consider yourself a "bad man," but I acknowledge that I certianly play a role in fudning bad things happening to innocents at hoem and abroad. Hopefully we can do something about that in my lifetime.
You're a man. You do things. There are other things you could do ,but you do the things you do instead. The things you do have consequences on your environment and yourself. For example you posted this at 3:42 AM EDT.If you're posting in this time zone (for example) you posted instead of sleeping,making love to your partner,eating a bag of cookies(I used to do this at 3:42 AM),ranting about Freddy Adu,or surfing internet porn. Wait?Did I just say Fred... Oh God forgive me ,I just killed a kitten. The lesson is in attempting to pass judgment on others,we become less attentive to the consequences of our own actions.
If we didn't have companies making submarines, the US would buy them from somewhere else. Its that simple. We're not going to war because we can build submarines - we build submarines because we go to war. Not to mention that the military-industrial complex is not, per se, evil and unholy or anything of the like.
If it concerns you, put your money in a socially responsible mutual fund like Pax World Funds. They get good rates of return and don't invest in defense contractors, tobacco compaines, etc. Plus, they'll only invest in companies that are environmentally responsible and have a well-cared-for workforce.
Nobody here can answer this question for you, it's up to you personally. But if you are looking for an opinion of how people will view you then you have come to the right spot, once you provide how you honestly feel about making a profit from war.
There's barely a fortune 500 company out there now that don't have its hand in military procurements.
Do your economic interests influence your moral decision making? If so, find a needle, a camel, and start practicing.
Nice Systems. Jim Cramer was on TV going on about how to do it, so I did it. I'm against the war, actually. But I figured I might aswell get something positive out of it.