Blame scam artists. Before these rules were in place, scammers were taking people's life savings through shoddy investments. This happened often enough that p

Blame scam artists. Before these rules were in place, scammers were taking people's life savings through shoddy investments. This happened often enough that people asked the government to step in to protect these people. And the "Accredited Investor" was born. Maybe things would be better today if they revoked the rules. Or maybe they would be worse. But either way it exists for a reason. And to be honest, $1MM is not a huge hurdle to overcome. Anyone looking to invest in risky ventures would be wise to accumulate a meaningful amount of wealth in order to shield them from the loss of capital they will very likely incur. Plus, there are ways around this in certain situations. A better approach would be to address the reporting requirements that are preventing startups from going public earlier. Startups used to IPO a few years after founding, but now they are going for 10+years.