[Piwoslaw]

Well, I'm not exactly rich (unless by third-world standards), but I do have a little bit of money stashed for when I'm even less rich. Putting it in a sock isn't the best idea, so I've had it on a bank account, with interest barely above inflation. But recently I've been thinking more and more about my impact on the rest of the world, what I can change and how. I'm finding out very interesting (though not always nice) things about how the world 'works', and I'm talking about this with my friends asking them questions which make you think, and I'm becoming a pain in the arse because of this, etc. ad nauseam. By totally random accident I read Margrit Kennedy's book "Interest and Inflation Free Money" (ISBN:0-9643025-0-0) and watched the Austrian documentary by Erwin Wagenhofer "Let's Make Money" on the same day, and since then I'm worried about what the bank does with my money (BTW: "Let's Make Money" is really good). The interest I get for my money comes from somewhere, and the bank is also making a profit, but where does that money come from?

Maybe some of you have had similar dilemmas with your investments? Which bank to choose, which stocks, etc.? It seems to me that the most money can be made by investing in oil, but that's like voting 'YES' for the next oil war. Or would it be ethical to invest in oil, but use all the money I make to fight Big Oil, invest into raising efficiency and renewable energy? Can I donate money made on nuclear stocks to an anti-nuclear organization, or invest in Monsanto to donate the interest to an organic gardening cause? Or should I keep my money as far away from that as possible and put money into an RE company, giving a profit not greater than inflation?

In the long term I'd like to buy a wind genny and sell surplus electricity, but that's somewhere over the horizon - we want to buy some land first. Until then I'd like to do something with the puny savings I have. Any thoughts?