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Here are 400 current shareholder resolutions, in which shareholders are directing companies to prioritize various social issues, such as environmental issues:

https://www.greenamerica.org/s...

This is 400 cases this year of shareholders explicitly telling executives "we want you to do this socially responsible thing, even if it cuts into profits".

You're absolutely right that, lacking any other information, the default assumption is that investmentors would generally prefer to make money rather than lose money. That's a default assumption when their is no reason to believe otherwise.

On the other hand, it is well known that Ben & Jerry's stockholders wish to support certain social issues:
https://www.benjerry.com/whats...
The executives at Ben & Jerry's would breach their duty to shareholders if they invested corporate money in an oil company, because there shareholders wouldn't like that - even if it increased profits.

3. There are no wealthy donors and no major corporations giving money to Occupy Wall St, in the way that the Tea Party was financially supported by News Corp.

This isn't completely true. I know at least Ben & Jerry's icecream supports them:
ben & jerry page of support Not sure of others, but I thought I would put that out there.

And give Imagine Whirled Peace a try.

It's really good.

http://www.benjerry.com/americanpie/

111.648 Calories / day.

That's equal to a 1/4 cup of Ben and Jerry's. Three bites of ice cream. http://www.benjerry.com/our_products/nutritional_i nfo_all.cfm

Say...."Pretty please, with sugar and spice on top!"

Or these: http://store.benjerry.com/pintlock.html

I'm not being paid money to write this. My payment is a freer, richer, more just society, built under the only system that can provide those ends: capitalism.

Two years ago, I bought a shirt from Microsoft (the "Freedom to Innovate" shirt), which I wear proudly on occasion.

I'm not a Microsoft employee, nor have I ever been one. The limit of my association with them is that I buy and use their software. Articles such as these attempt to minimize actual grassroots people like me. But I exist!

And what right do they have to attack people for this funding friendly groups, anyway? Other corporations are not attacked when they give money to the Sierra Club, SaveOurEnvironment.org, and "Rock The Vote", or to thousands of other politically-tainted groups. It's only "astroturfing" when the author of the article disagrees with the viewpoint being promoted.

Microsoft should fund the Ayn Rand Institute. They have the philosophy that could properly defend them, but I think Microsoft is afraid of appearing too radical or offensive to some people. And that, I think, is going to hurt them in the long run.

I found a link to this on Ben&Jerry's site after reading the news.com article. Pledge to vote in the next election and you get a free iTunes download with 24-48 hours.

Get 'em while they're hot--er, or before they melt?

Cherry

I'm not sure if it's because of me (a /.er who's been doing a "Chicken Little" impression about electronic voting for a couple of years now) or because of Ben Cohen's (as in "Ben," the founder of Ben & Jerry's, tho' he's no longer working there) organization, True Majority, which has been sending her e-mails about e-voting, among other issues, but my mom has gotten into this issue. She lives in Maine and sent me an e-mail about an act recently passed in the Maine Legislature entitled An Act to Ensure the Accurate Counting of Votes. Note: navigation is a bit weird on the linked site-- if you go to the text of the Act, the whole text of the bill will not appear on a single page. You will have to use the arrows at the top and bottom of the pages to navigate around through the Act. You can also download a copy in M$ Word format.
Oh yeh-- there's an amendment. To see it, click on the "Amendments" link on the "Bill Text and Other Docs" page, or click here.
This is a sweet little piece of legislation. My favorite parts: it prohibits networking the voting machines, requires the voting machine software to be open source, and requires the voting machines to print paper ballots that are inspected by the voter and then placed into a ballot box. I am deeply impressed with this, and with the sponsor, Maine State Representative Hannah Pingree.
Here's a question: does anybody other than the OVC have a product that meets the criteria specified in the Act?
Responding to the parent post, I'll say that Maine can be considered a "backwater state," and its legislature has produced what appears to me to be a kick-ass piece of legislation on e-voting that explicitly requires open source software. Do big, rich, important states like California have such good legislation? I think not. Score one for the backwater states!

--Mark

PS: if you're near a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop, go there next Tuesday, April 27, and take advantage of Free Cone Day!!!

This is akin to blaming Smith and Wesson for injuries to the neighbors when you fire your gun in random directions.

How long is it before ATM's / "grocery stores" (supermarkets here) are linked into dating sites and your email?

Dude, if the grocery store tattled on my buying habits and my dating website realized how many twinkies and pints of Ben & Jerry's I buy (not for myself, I assure you!) the dating site may assume (incorrectly, I assure you) that my picture is 5+ years out of date and not representative of my current date-ability and good-lookie drool factor vis a vis the ladies. Soundly suckily Orwellian to me.

All of the Ben & Jerry's factories are in Vermont. Personally, I've been on the tour at the factory in Springfield several times so I'll discuss that. You start out with a little multimedia presentation and then walk through some elevated paths above the work floor. After that you go and get free samples of whatever two flavors of ice cream that where produced the previous day.

Its a little more than my brief description, but it has always been fun. It'd probably be better to go during the summer so you can lounge around and enjoy a cone on the deck outside the factory.

Overall, its a nice cheap way to waste an afternoon if you're in the area. Although they're not factories, you'd probably want to visit some local agrarian type places like a farm, fruit orchard or (maple) sugar house.

More info can be found here.

Festivus has gotten entirely too commercial, dammit.

I have petitioned management to institute the celebration of Festivus .

I think that a corporate celebration of Festivus gives a brilliant opportunity for the traditional "Airing of grievances".

I'm surprised that Ben & Jerry's hasn't jumped into this seeing as how they're owned by a global mega-corp now.