A New Low In Corporate Virtue-Signaling

Someday, historians will analyze what caused American corporations to veer sharply to the left in the early years of the 21st century. It is a weird phenomenon, as exemplified by the case of WeWork:

Office space sharing company WeWork says it is no longer serving red or white meat at company events.

In an email to employees Thursday, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Miguel McKelvey said the company won’t serve pork, poultry or red meat, and it won’t allow employees to expense meals that include those meats to the company. Fish will stay on the menu.

I would love to be present when a WeWork marketer takes a prospective client to lunch and explains that he can’t order a hamburger or a chicken salad sandwich. WeWork’s “Chief Creative Officer”–that’s a bad sign, right there–explains the company’s theory:

McKelvey said the change means WeWork will use less water and produce less carbon dioxide as well as saving the lives of animals.
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The policy is effective immediately and also applies to the company’s Summer Camp gathering in the United Kingdom in August. McKelvey wrote that WeWork could save 10,000 animals by eliminating meat at the upcoming Summer Camp event.

WeWork apparently thinks the “saved” cows will spend their days gamboling in meadows, while “saved” chickens will retire to old fowls’ homes. Someone should explain to these morons that such animals are raised for the sole purpose of being slaughtered. If demand for pork declines, the price of pork will fall and fewer pigs will be raised. But none will be “saved.”

It would be entertaining to calculate how much impact the decline in carbon dioxide emissions resulting from WeWork’s new policy (if any) will have on global temperatures. I’m not sure there are enough zeros for that calculation. I am not in the market for WeWork’s services, but if I were, I would hire someone else, on the assumption that any company that is 1) this dumb, and 2) this distracted from its core mission is probably incompetent.

The Associated Press points out that there are lots more virtue signalers:

WeWork’s meat policy may be unique, but the company is joining a group of companies that have recently looked for ways to reduce their impact on the environment. Coffee chain Starbucks, airlines including American and Alaska, and the Hilton and Hyatt hotel chains have all recently announced that they will stop using plastic straws so they produce less plastic waste. Some cities have banned the straws as well.

Actually, I am fine with not offering plastic straws. I could happily go the rest of my life without using one. But it’s not as though straws play a particularly large role in the broader issue of disposal of plastics. This promotional photograph shows a lineup of Starbucks’ cold beverages:

I’m sure someone will sleep better at night, knowing that those green straws will no longer contribute to the company’s use of plastics. And of course, in the greater scheme of things, none of this will make any perceptible difference, since 90% of the plastic that pollutes oceans comes from 10 rivers in Asia and Africa. For better or worse, there isn’t a lot of virtue signaling going on there.

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