At times it can be fun to ponder how different things might be. As we get ready to tap ANWR and shove more oil money into the pockets of some perky oil corporation(s), it is worth giving a thought to what things might be like if our nation's oil went to our nation's citizens. (Imagine what our retirement benefits would look like if ALL our national resources went to benefit our national citizens? *phew*)
This idea was such a provocative affront to God, it caused Christian leader Pat Robertson to suggest assassinating (in a holy way, I am sure) the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. In the meantime, quiet, unassuming Norway has been using its oil money to benefit its 4.6M people for years. As our country runs up its credit card bills as fast as the registers will allow, imagine sharing a $190B with 4.6M people...
It was nice to boost to my patriotic pride to see American companies head the "blood money" list at the end of the article.
Oil-Rich Norway Hires Philosopher As Moral Compass
State Seeks Ethics Lesson On Investing Its Bonanza; Mr. Syse Reads Hobbes
December 1, 2005
OSLO, Norway -- Henrik Syse, a professional philosopher, says he gets ribbed by his family that "five of my 10 best friends are dead Greeks." But this fall he put aside writing a book on Plato to ponder a more practical puzzle: what to do with around $190 billion?
Mr. Syse started work in September as the in-house ethicist for the Norwegian government's Petroleum Fund, one of the world's largest pools of investment capital. "It has been a steep learning curve," says the 39-year-old academic. "I'm a philosopher. I'm not a banker."
With a new office in the Norwegian Central Bank, he gets paid to ruminate on how, at a time of surging energy prices, the world's third-biggest oil exporter can best match profit and principle. Investment, he says, "is teeming with ethical issues." He has begun trying to figure out how the Petroleum Fund, the custodian of Norway's oil earnings, can use its investments to get companies to behave more ethically.
...
"This is a big victory for public opinion," Ms. Gaarder says. "We don't want a pension that is based on blood money."
So far this year, nine big American and European companies, most of them arms makers, have been booted from the fund's portfolio. They include Alliant Techsystems Inc., General Dynamics Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co., all of which the ethics council faulted for involvement in the manufacture of cluster bombs. Norway believes such weapons, which spray small bombs over a target area, "violate fundamental humanitarian principles," the Ethical Council said.
