In some pockets of rich people's society things like impact investment (not only expecting monetary returns, but also a positive effect on society) are becoming popular.
However
a) still a niche (>60% of their money remains at the stock market, a chunk real estate and most greedy overlords still hoard gold...).
b) its still capitalism, just companies with some small positive side effects (think about companies doing renewable energies, recycling, organic farming...). But still growth-oriented and usually *some* percentage return is expected.
c) there is building a whole greenwashing and "you are the hero" industry around these well-meaning rich people. Of course.
d) the focus on economically depressed regions leads to very creepy situations when the objective is to "provide the poor with affordable basic services" like housing, telecommunication or healthcare, or giving loans to female farmers in Guatemala. And while this has indeed some positive effects and might create jobs and improve the situation of the target groups, it is deeply questionable when the uber-wealthy get richer by selling something to people below the poverty line.
That said, impact investment is at least a step in the right direction, since it decreases the underlying obsession to multiply capital, but to try to break less things on the way and maybe doing even something good. I prefer having them bragging at the golf club "hey, one of my start-ups is providing menstrual hygiene products to schoolgirls in central africa" than the stuff they are currently talking about. But then again we have the power issue, similar as in philantropy: who decides what is "positive impact"? Some religious folks could think that it is a good thing to invest altruistically in a company that offers homophobic and antiabortist SexEd in schools. Or an oligarch buys a newspaper. Or twitter...
We can't let and don't need to leave these decisions to them. Hard cap on wealth at 10 millions.
@JulieB @pa
#TaxTheRich #ImpactInvestment #AngelInvestor #Philantropy #SustainableFinance