See J. Henderson’s post at blog.Mises for a quick summary of “socially responsible investing” (SRI).

Like the whole “fair trade” scam, “green business,” etc., SRI is legitimately a part of the free market, and libertarians (qua libertarians) cannot fault it.

But we all have subordinate values as well.

I know socially conservative libertarians who will decry pornography, drugs, prostitution, etc., while also opposing any use of force against them. Me, I’m all for pornography, drugs, and prostitution (though not before noon), but I’ll happily revile the irrationalism of secular religions such as “social justice” (collectivism’s perversion of individualism’s ideal), environmentalism (aka “ecological mysticism”), or any activist cause with the word “child” or “children” in its name.

Here’s a quick tip: whenever you encounter a perfectly good individualist word, such as responsible, justice, or contract, modified by “social” or “socially” … hold your nose, hold your breath, hold on to your wallet, and remove impressionable offspring from the source of semantic pollution.