Posted on 06/30/2022 8:52:01 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The rising influence of a woke investing movement that pressures companies to adopt left-wing political causes has policymakers and industry experts warning that the U.S. could be on the path to a Chinese model of monitoring the behavior of businesses -- and even individuals.
The movement called environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, which is based on the concept that investors should use these three broad categories when evaluating where to put their money, prioritizing progressive values and "social responsibility" when making financial decisions.
According to Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks, one of the nation's leading voices pushing back against the movement, embracing ESG could end up restricting personal freedom and infringing on private enterprise.
"ESG undermines our democratic processes and free-market capitalism," Oaks told Just the News in an exclusive interview. "It could easily lead to individual ESG scores, like China's social credit system. Even worse, our system might include an individual carbon footprint. If you've driven too far in your gasoline-powered car, will your car privileges be suspended for a time?"
In China, the communist government has a "social credit system" that tracks and collects data on individuals, companies, and government entities to assess their trustworthiness. While the system is still disjointed and very much a work in progress, people and entities can be rewarded or punished based on certain behavior.
Last month the president of Alibaba Group, a major Chinese tech company, boasted at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting about the development of an "individual carbon footprint tracker" that will be able to track where people travel, how they travel, and what they eat. It's unclear whether such technology will be incorporated into the social credit system.
Oaks isn't alone in expressing fear that ESG could put the U.S. on the road to greater authoritarianism.
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
Don’t forget who helped develop the tracking, monitoring and individual scoring technology and infrastructure for China’s Social Credit System....Google.
ESG is really woke fiduciary negligence.
It’s pervasive in the energy industry.
It’s hard watching engineers lie to other engineers because we all know it’s BS.
I’ll never be promoted, nor want to, due to my inability to “get monkeypox’d” for a corporation.
The Democrats want to pass a tax structure that uses ESG scores to determine taxation rates and regulation environments. The thing is that ESG scores factor in donations to various causes and even to political candidates. If they donate to Republicans and conservative causes they get a lower ESG score. Donate to Democrats and liberal causes and they get a higher ESG score.
Another thing to keep in mind... China’s social credit score system is also used by, you guessed it, Russia.
I think all it will take is one good lawsuit against a publicly traded corporation for abandoning their fiduciary responsibility in pursuit of ESG goals, and this nonsense would end very quickly.
Excellent article.
Great find and post.
A surveillance state is precisely what they want.
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