it makes sense for a total market index as it's a "total market" index. Given the purpose of the SP500, it makes less sense but I still see the argument. Grift or not, morals or not, an index shouldn't care. An index shouldn't care any more than Excel should care about the morality of evaluating a formula. It just tracks what it is defined to track. Leave it to the individual index tracking funds to apply a philosophy to their investments.