[ullevaal]

I think democratising asset investments is a worthwhile goal. The gamifying and the fact that RobinHood makes it money from trades does lead to some strained incentives, where most people would probably be better of maximising their tax advantaged pension contributions or setting or forgetting an index fund savings plan. However, I think also direct access to small and free to stock picks is generally good, so hopefully RobinHood is able to thread the needle, and make some money also when their customers make money.

[md_]

But statistically speaking it empirically isn't. Piketty, as mentioned by Tenev in the article, does indeed point out that one of the reasons return on capital is higher for the wealthy is because of access to lower-cost asset management and higher-return esoteric investments that the rest of us don't enjoy, but it's absurd to suggest (as Tenev does) that this is materially changed by bringing the cost of retail stock purchases from $4 down to $0.