Ok but why do these 3 companies want this ESG equity stuff? What is their end goal? I just don't understand how it helps them in any way?
Usually stuff happens in the background because it ultimately helps their bottom line. But this seems like it just hurts profit - Disney going woke, Budweiser ad campaign, etc. It's just making them lose money. I just don't get it.
I think the 3 companies is a bit of a misnomer. They're likely talking Vanguard, Blackrock, and state street. These are giant funds that tons of different people invest in. Including every day joes like you and me, if I buy an Exchange Traded Fund operated by Vanguard, I am the owner of the units/shares.
Now, it is likely theoretically true that the people managing the ETFs and Mutual Funds etc can drop stocks out of their baskets, though that might creates some issues for funds that seek to give returns of certain indices.
The end goal is an interesting question. I think we have to realize that the amounts of money being invested here is absolutely huge, and likely the bulk of the assets are owned by very few people (the proverbial top .01%). They have more money than they can't even spend it on things they'd actually use without putting only a small dent in their wealth.
They know even if the economy collapsed to great depression or global financial crisis levels the government playbook would be on their side to print more money and bail them out, and often after these crises wealth inequality rises because these really wealthy people have hte liquidity to purchase distressed assets for cheap at the bottom of the bust.
The only threat to their wealth and power are movement like occupy wallstreet that could conceivably have things like billionaires taxes, millionares taxes, or at the total extreme people's heads in a guillotine lol. We also know the line of culture war instead of class war ----> around 2012 occupy wallstreet fizzled out as the media flooded the western world with all whites are racist, everything is white supremacy, sexual politics, pronouns, etc and increasing clown world stuff like the evergreen college incident. This has been wildly successful in creating infighting and ruining intelligent discourse in society.
While over simplifying, it's essentially divide and conquer politics, to make sure the low/working/middle classes have no cohesion or major sub-segment with any power. The corporate DEI initiatives are essentially a wealth transfer to shrink the older, typically more weighted to white male middle class, and transfer some of that wealth to the working class, with a push towards women, non-straight sexual parties, and minorities.
