[throaway1990]

Who decides that I am too stupid to invest?

I should be the only person to decide that, already there are strict regulations about day trading, volume of trades on a mobile platform, access to margins and access to after hours trading.

Robinhood adheres to all these regulations and doesn't easily dole out features to anyone.

[bobthepanda]

The reason this regulation exists is because enough people doing it is systemic risk.

You losing all your money impacts you. You and millions of other people losing all their money at the same time impacts society; they can't pay bills to their creditors, then those creditors can't pay, and soon enough we're talking bank runs and financial collapse.

[ryandrake]

Regardless of the intention behind the rules, the actual effect of so-called accredited investor rules is simply that the most potentially lucrative investments are only available to the already-rich class. The general public gets the dog investments.

If I want to gamble away a windfall $200K inheritance, I can easily and legally go to Vegas and have my loss "impact society." Why shouldn't I instead be allowed to invest that in a startup?

[bobthepanda]

The country is generally not all at the slots at the same time, and if you do dumb things in Vegas that basically impacts you and the casino and any immediate creditors.

The entire country is in the stock market (401k and pensions, etc.) so gambling with valuations has real impact on things that aren't just you, and the blast radius of harm is so much larger. We already saw this happen in the Great Depression; bank runs, sudden, massive tightening of liquidity that screwed over creditors and suppliers in a cascading fashion, etc.

The real fundamental issue is that QE as the overwhelming response to 2007 mostly just massively inflated stocks and other rich people assets without meaningfully improving the financial prospects of middle and working class people, so now everyone is clamoring at the gates to be let in at the stock market. Look at how quickly BTC became a numbers game rather than the actual useful intrinsic value, with people who couldn't give two shits about the blockchain.

[throaway1990]

You want only millionaires investing in securities? I don't have any right to invest because I am poor?

I am not against regulations, I think all existing regulations are perfectly adequate to protect inexperienced investors from themselves.

[godelski]

This is a perfectly sane position if your actions only affect yourself. The issue is that your actions affect others.

[throaway1990]

How? In your world there is no concept of personal responsibilty?

If I lose ALL my investments, it doesn't change my way of life or status in society. I have no dependents or collateral.

On the other hand, if my investments pay off, I have a real shot of upward social mobility within 5 years, instead of 5 decades.