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by jkukul 15 days ago
Quite ironic. The original Robin Hood took from the rich and gave to the poor. Robinhood, the app, seems to do the exact opposite: it helps the rich get richer at the expense of regular folk.
3 comments

They turned Robin Hood to Robbin’ the Hood
This was always the Robin Hood play (versus being a grown up brokerage), they are simply griftmaxxing now in a "low regulatory environment". Like Coinbase, they need volume to succeed economically, not buy and hold investors. Crypto volume is down, so Coinbase revenue is down. Young people have little to no cashflow, but they have high intent to gamble in a crushing and financially nihilistic macro, which Robin Hood serves.

https://www.npr.org/2026/04/05/nx-s1-5762276/teens-getting-h...

https://kyla.substack.com/p/gen-z-and-financial-nihilism

https://web.archive.org/web/20240226104327/https://youngmone...

https://web.archive.org/web/20240226104327/https://coinmarke...

I believe you’re confusing access with outcomes. Giving people access to markets isn’t exploitation afaic.

If you’d like to make dubious trades that’s your prerogative and who am I to stop you.

You are a member of society. Society stops people doing harmful things to themselves all the time.
This should be limited to giving advice (education, warning, explicit consent), unless there's harm to third parties.

Because, you know, certain actions and even thoughts can lead to eternal damnation in Hell, according to what a society may think. Would you prefer the society to hold you off from that?

People claim this all the time to win internet arguments but the truth is we all have a moral code.

If you see a child playing with a loaded gun, you won’t stop it?

A child is not a fully autonomous person. I would of course take the loaded gun from the child, unload it, and explain its dangers to the child.

Money, in any form, may be as dangerous as a loaded gun, trading stocks or not. Most adults are careful with money, as they are with loaded guns. The problem is that some parties may try to make trading stocks (even leveraged) look much easier and safer than it is. It's like giving somebody a real loaded gun, while making it look like a toy gun, safe even for a child. And this of course needs to be regulated: not the trading, but the disclosure. This is not a toy.

Who are you to decide that a child is not a fully autonomous person? Sounds like you're imposing a normative rule based on societally derived presuppositions of right and wrong, which is exactly the point. We're just haggling over where the line should be drawn and you think it should be drawn somewhere further back than others do, but there's no truth to be found here.
Harm to others includes cost to society in general.
I have access to a car and bottle of bourbon, but there are laws that restrict me from drinking and driving.
they don't restrict you, you can always drink and drive. you may or may not, depending on your luck, suffer the legal consequences of your actions.
tell that to the cops that’ll pull you over.

ignition interlock device market continues to grow, as some states are attempting to require them in all new cars.

Well, have your seen the current size of Sherwood forest