In an exclusive interview with MRC Business Vice President Dan Schneider, Woke, Inc. author Vivek Ramaswamy condemned ESG efforts and offered a free market alternative based “exclusively on an excellence centric vision.”
Ramaswamy warned the public of how companies that subscribe to woke environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards use American citizens’ money to try to push “one-sided political agendas,” and “correct” so-called societal “injustices.” He also explained why the need for alternative solutions motivated him to create Strive Asset Management.
“ESG, think about that as the implementation of this so-called woke agenda through capital markets using your money to do it,” said Ramaswany. “Most Americans' money was used in the last several years to vote for things like racial equity audits at companies like Apple and… Home Depot, Scope 3 emissions cap at companies like Chevron, for example, that most Americans don’t know is actually happening.”
Schneider responded by highlighting the insidious ESG movement’s overreaching legislative tentacles.
“Look, you have to give the left credit. They’re very, very clever. They’ll try to push for these radical policy outcomes through state legislatures, through congress, through the courts, but what they’re doing now is using private sector money to achieve their outcomes against the interest of the American public.”
“I think that’s why we have to save capitalism now from corporatism or from corporate America,” said Ramaswamy. “I think that’s the defining challenge for the conservative movement,” he later added. His solution? A return to free market capitalism without politics.
“If BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard are taking the money of everyday citizens and using it to advance political values, then those everyday citizens need other options, so that’s what led me to found Strive.”
In only three months, the investment company crossed the half a billion dollar mark after launching its first fund, according to Ramaswamy. He attributed the company’s success to an economically educated American public who wanted an alternative to ESG investment options.
“Leave politics to the political process,” said Ramaswamy. “[C]ompanies should focus exclusively on the products and services for their customers that generate value for their shareholders without apologizing for it. No three letter acronyms, no ESG informed philosophy, exclusively an excellence centric vision.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they report the truth on how ESG is hurting the American economy.
