Replies to post #471944 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[brooklyn13]

Maybe it's me, but I can't tell if you actually are this dense or just pretend to be for your fans.

Let's step back and look at a larger picture of these protests. As far as I know, they are mostly centered around divesting in companies that do business with defense contractors that sell to Israel and / or defense contractors in general. Fair enough.

At some point you have to ask, or might ask, how are these kids tuitions being paid? Maybe their parents are successful business people and, therefore, are probably invested in the stock market. Warren Buffett, for example has been quoted numerous times as believing that one should buy all-market mutual funds (or etfs) and let them ride. Ok, how about the Schwab Total Market fund, SWTSX, that has $22B in assets? It holds $44M worth of Lockheed Martin and $86M of GE Aerospace, two of the largest defense contractors in the country. Or how about the Fidelity Total Market, FSKAX, with about $90B under management? They own 1.9M shares of GE Aerospace.

Or, maybe their parents are in unions? How are union pension funds investing their money? Per Nasdaq.com, getting back to LM, the California Public Employees Retirement System owns 989K shares. It also owns 940K shares in General Dynamics. The NY State Common Retirement Fund owns 945K shares of Boeing, another major defense contractor.

And, of course, all the major investment banks own millions of shares of all the top defense contractors, so if you're invested in anything that holds bank funds, guess what, you own shares in companies selling missiles to Israel. Don't believe me, look it up.

So, these kids are attending schools on their parents money, not all of them, but a lot. And that same parents' money, the money that pays tuition, is often invested in exactly the same companies that these same kids are demanding their colleges divest? Only kids (and you) think that makes sense.

Now getting back to the Survivor you highlighted, how is she paying for her rent and food? She appears to be retired and I'd suggest it's entirely possible she's being funded, at least partially, by a lot of these same companies she's protesting against.