Mark McVeigh, a 24-year-old environmental scientist from Australia, won’t be able to access his retirement savings until 2055. But, concerned about what the world may look like then, he’s taking action now, suing his A$57 billion ($39 billion) pension fund for not adequately disclosing or assessing the impact of climate change on its investments.
Cue picture of stereotypical ponytailed unshaven millennial affecting zher best serious face:
Is that shirt available in “ironed”, son?
Before launching the legal action, McVeigh asked Retail Employees Superannuation Trust, or Rest, how it was ensuring his savings were future proofed against rising world temperatures. Its response didn’t satisfy him and he ended up engaging specialist climate change law firm, Equity Generation Lawyers.
Readers outside Australia might not know this, but the legislation around Superannuation is excellent in terms of portability and choice for the consumer. If you don’t like how your fund is invested or administered, switching to another provider is relatively simple. In most cases it’s a quick and easy online process using an industry standard reference number.
So, our faux gravitas-faced soy boy could log on to the laptop pictured in front of him and switch to this fund, for example.
That he has, instead, chosen to engage an activist legal firm (who are hopefully acting pro-bono) to sue his existing fund requires some explanation, then.
Given that portability of funds, and the availability of real alternatives, it’s not unreasonable for observers to wonder at Mark’s motivation in this.
Is he genuinely concerned about how his investments are being made? Complete an online form and switch funds then.
Or, is this an attempt to set a legal precedent restricting the choice of the rest of us?
Bill’s Opinion
We can’t read Mark’s mind, but his actions suggest less concern about his personal investments and more a desire to interfere with ours.
The problem he will face is that the prime objective, written in law, of superannuation funds is to increase the wealth of the savers.
It won’t be hard for the Defence lawyers to argue that, compared to a pathetic 1.2% annualised performance, his current fund is performing their legal duties far more diligently then the virtue signalling “ethical” fund.
It won’t have entered Mark’s mind, given the incontrovertible truth that, starting about 20 years before his birth, the world has witnessed nothing short of a miracle in the reduction of human suffering as a result of economic freedom to trade and invest:
But sure, go ahead Mark, tell us all how we should spend our own money, because you’ve worked it all out for us in your 24 years of existence.
Twenty Four year old Environmental scientist says it all, another millennial on the gravy train of “climate science”, the fastest growing profession of the 21st century! Does anyone know what an Environmental scientist actually does, apart from fudging temperature and other data so that it will agree with the computer models that can tell us the fate of the world in 100 years but can’t predict accurately if it will rain next thursday.
When I was seventeen, I was amazed to find how little my father knew. When I was twenty-five, I was amazed to find how much he’d learned in the intervening eight years. (Ascribed to multiple sources, but it certainly applies to me.)
I may have fallen for an urban myth but I thought it was Mark Twain.
The only actual environmental science is physics. I suspect he has a degree in communications and PR.
That prompts a thought; just how, in the past, some jobs disappeared overnight (air navigators after Reagan opened the GPS, for example), when the climate science bubble bursts, what will these rent seekers do?
Serious question; what’s the adjacent real job they are qualified for?
Work that out and there’s money to be made in the transition.
I see their future down the new coal mines.
The money to be made here is to invest in the things that they are against.
It wont be long before its shown that working is bad for the environment, then we can go full free wages for all, with no work required.
It’s not often anyone out-conspiracy theory’s you but surely “living” is the ultimate thing to be banned.
Anti-natalism is actually A Thing now, Billy.
Is that a movement to disestablish the South African province?
Ha! That’s actually ANCism.
Human capital is definitely an evil in the eyes of the metropolitan elite that run our centrally managed economy from their palaces located in our densely populated cities. But given that this two legged pollution emitting debt serf already exists, then there is one productive role that he could usefully fulfill on the plantation. He could be further indoctrinated at the Oslo Freedom Foundation and sent to Hong Kong with a mask on, to protest and throw bricks for freedom.
Meanwhile Aterpay announced this week that it is now signing up 15,000 new clients every day and rising, whilst the alt-media charlatans are still telling us to horde our cash in preparation for Armageddon.
“…. whilst the alt-media charlatans are still telling us to horde our cash in preparation for Armageddon.”
It’s remarkable, isn’t it? The multi-year bull market seems to have completely passed the media commentators by.
I get that, if you’ve been predicting a crash for a couple of years, the exact opposite happening is a little inconvenient, but surely you have to at least mention it?
Max Keiser is doubling down on things that he is getting wrong, that’s how they treat inconvenient facts.
I did suffer a body blow of sorts yesterday when Corbyn announced free state run t’internet for all, if you vote for Labour, my BT stocks took a bit of a hit. By the way, have you seen his brother Piers, he is a nutty professor type, that knows about the weather and climate and is also a global warming denier. No joke, he actually comes across as quite coherent on the subject as well.
I always suspected that Corbyn was one of those Dr Who type guest performers that are really lizards, having seen his brother recently I now think he may well be from a family of lizards. Watching the shadow treasurer, John McDonnell’s recent spooky as hell live broadcast from the inside of his modest, two up two down, living room, confirms to me that he is definitely a lizard as well, Dianne Abbot isn’t one though, she is simply a dyed in the wool hippopotamus.
Keiser has predicted 12 of the last 2 recessions!
Actually, I’d be very happy about the dip to your BT stocks; buy that dip. It wasn’t material, th market clearly thinks there’s barely a chance it will happen.
Yeah, Piers clearly got the brains quotient for the family.
“Actually, I’d be very happy about the dip to your BT stocks; buy that dip. It wasn’t material, th market clearly thinks there’s barely a chance it will happen.”
I have recently sold down all of my US, HK & European holdings, other than Porsche, and chucked it all on a Brexit bounce play in backing three FTSE 100 horses post election, one of which being BT.
Accordingly, I’m a little sensitive of offers to buy the British proletariat off with free bauble s at this juncture. What if the opposition parties all done the usual and broke their campaign promise and formed a Labour/Lib-Dem/SNP majority government, the oinks would then be demanding and would surely get their free t’internet provided by poor old me.
Never say never but I think the chances of Prime Minister Corbyn happening are quite remote.
I’m screwed worse than you if it happens though; I punted my SMSF there last year.
Well lets hope that you are right for both our sakes.
I too am fairly bullish on the outlook for Britannia, although if Max Kaiser were to start going long British blue chip firms, I will be hitting the sell button quicker than a rat up a drainpipe.
After you receive your post Brexit windfall, maybe you should consider diversifying wider, if so, have a gander at Porsche. They are undervalued on every fundamental and pay a decent dividend on top of that. For example, they are currently trading with a PE of 5.4 in the German car manufacturing sector which has an average PE of 10.7, as a comparison BMW’s PE is 10.2 and Daimler’s is 13.4. Plus, when you get a stock that has a price to earnings growth of less than 1, which is a very rare occurrence in my portfolio, its normally a screaming buy, Porsche are 0.6!
I will be receiving a big fat tax refund any day now and some of those proceeds will be used to double my holdings in them, even though I know that the German manufacturing sector is definitely in a technical recession.
Everybody wants to own a Porsche at some stage of their life.
I generally leave all investing decisions to someone whose proven they are significantly better at it than I.
I haven’t heard much, if any, commentary on likely voter turnout this election but I wonder whether the cold or inclement weather favours one side of the other?
Apparently one of the many reasons that Corbyn was bottling it about calling an election was that this one wasn’t good timing for the student cohort.
It’s a bit different from a normal election and hard to say whether or not the yuppies will find parking for their SUV’s and get this damn thing done, or the duffle coat wearing Corbinista’s will prevail on a dismal day.
I am starting to lose my bottle on Britannia. After last week a lot of the institutions have down rated BT as an exmaple. I am now looking at an earlier exit and have started selling down. I am probably wrong here and just spooked by lizard people, but it just isn’t sitting right with me anymore, and when it comes to investing preserving capital doesn’t make you much but doesn’t hurt either, which is why I have started selling down today.
Things like this dont help either, a gridlocked election outcome wont work for me either.
Corbyn Catches Up With Johnson in Dramatic U.K. Election Debate
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-19/corbyn-catches-up-with-johnson-in-dramatic-u-k-election-debate
Hold your nerve, soldier!
Aye, fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live — at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!!!
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
“It wont be long before its shown that working is bad for the environment,”
They already believe this, and from their viewpoint all human activity is bad for the environment. Hence the Green’s underlying desire to murder people in vast numbers.