Need for Alcohol-Free, Tobacco-Free 401K Retirement Plan Options

I was recently informed by a very knowledgeable banker in Austin, Texas, that it is very difficult to obtain a 401K Plan retirement investment program through an employer in Texas that specifically EXCLUDES any and all financial investment in the alcohol industry or the tobacco industry.

It seems that the vast majority of all of the 401K plans being offered to Texans by their employers are plans that invest heavily in the alcohol and tobacco industry.

That tragic perversion in the American and Texan economic system at present creates a very sad dilemma for those of us who fervently support the long-term goal of a drinking-alcohol-free and tobacco-free America.

The ironic twist from it all is that a longtime anti-alcohol Prohibitionist and lifelong non-smoker such as myself, is currently put in the contradictory position, through my respective 401K retirement plans, of myself financially investing in the two industries that I would most like to see eliminated.

The only exception to that wish of mine for the American alcohol and tobacco industries is this: I can personally agree to the need for production of alcohol for use in cooking, with the prior understanding that the alcohol will fully evaporate in the cooking process. Alcohol used in cooking can enhance the flavor of the dishes being prepared that way; and if there is no risk of actually ingesting alcohol from the use of alcohol in cooking, I can see where this one usage of alcohol can be justified.

There is every hope, in any event, that many of the anti-alcohol and anti-tobacco non-profit groups in this nation will pressure companies and the government into offering 401K retirement plan options in which there is no risk of investing in either the alcohol industry or the tobacco industry.