Yeah, lots of people do claim that. But we still let them do it. High risk, low reward investments are totally cool for everyone. We don't have a problem with the risk portion. It's only when the reward becomes huge that we have a problem.

I don't think most people realize how true the adages are, "the rich keep getting richer," or, "it takes money to make money," really are. People say it, and other people feel it's true, but then they can't point to anything tangible. But there it is. Current SEC regulation basically institutionalizes this.

Here is a financial opportunity that's actually not that complicated, which is no more risky than other available opporutinies, but we have actually made it the law such that, "Only the 1% may do this."

But there's only one law "protecting" them from one specific kind of bad money decision. So I guess we're saying payday lenders are ok for poor people, rent-to-own is ok for poor people, but we must protect them from investing in the next amazon or dropbox at all costs. That's much riskier than the lottery.

1. Mortgage contracts are too complex for a layperson to understand. Often the amount of time people are given to sign them is less than it would take to read the entire contract through just once. 2. Getting a mortgage is an instance where the seller is also the advisor (similar to an auto mechanic or a doctor). 3. Consumers were actively advised to take out mortgages that the seller knew were more expensive than the consumer could afford. 4. If a predatory auto mechanic deliberately advised a customer they needed repairs that they did not, that would be fraud on the part of the mechanic. The same thing applies to predatory lenders.

(There certainly were people who just made bad decisions. But there was also widespread, documented fraud on the part of lenders.)

>Because a lot of that group said they "didn't know any better" and were "misled" when it came to bad mortgages during the crunch.

What else are you going to tell people when you lose half a mil? That sounds a lot better than "Honey, I gambled our financial future trying to get rich in the housing market, and you'll never believe what happened..."

We don't protect investors from penny stocks, which are far riskier. We "protect" investors from damn near nothing. There are some limits on day trading and options trading sure, but those start to get lifted at around $25k.

Investing in a private company that's about to go IPO is actually not that risky when compared to multitude of other investment instruments that are available.

The secondary market is private market for the 1%. That's literally what it is. Maybe that's not how it started or how it was originally sold, but that's what it is. And it's now institutionalized and part of the law.

The idea that it's about protection is just absurd. It's absurd. Are you telling me you are glad that the 1% is out there making sure that you can't invest in Facebook for $20/share? Protection? Really?

The crash was widely construed to be because of the ignorant public essentially betting on the stock market, with resulting instability. Wise, rich investors would invest and leave their money for years at a time.

The resulting rules changes can be revisionist-history interpreted as protecting the 99%. But remember at the time, the gilded age had passed; labor reforms were in place etc (Teddy Roosevelt, 1910s) and laws such as these were under fierce scrutiny for favoritism.

Still, today it does what it does regardless of the initial impetus. And what it does is prevent most people from playing most games.

Comparing the light regulation of the past to the current strict regulation, sure the current regulation is better.

But legally anointing an "accredited investor" class based on their current financial resources clearly advantages the rich over the poor. There are other ways to protect investors without categorically denying opportunities for savvy, non-wealth individuals (and people who are currently wealthy also deserve protection from fraudsters).

No. In fact, the SEC is trying to raise the limit to $2.5 million now because there are too many millionaires.