One of the historically "American" values is the lack of social and economic barriers to people who want to take risks: the ability for anyone to take a huge ri

One of the historically "American" values is the lack of social and economic barriers to people who want to take risks: the ability for anyone to take a huge risk and earn a huge reward. You don't have to come from wealth or be a banker to take financial risks. If you want to risk your life-savings, no one is going to stop you. Preference is given to the individual freedom over safety. At the end of the day your life, your choices, and their results are your responsibility. We don't want people/government to protect us from ourselves because that directly limits our personal freedom. The prevailing attitude is that you should be freedom to gamble your own life/possessions and ignore the nay-sayers. You have the right to take on whatever risks you feel you are big enough to handle. So when someone does something risky, like invest their life-savings, we expect them to own the responsibility for their risk. In our culture risk and responsibility go hand in hand. We have little sympathy when someone gripes about a risky decision that turns badly. It was a risk. If you were not prepared to handle it turning sour you should not have taken the risk. If you did not do even the basic research to understand the nature of the risk we feel even less sorry for you. We love the story of the underdog who risks it all and wins. We love the story of the underdog who has the courage to risk it all and accepts responsibility when he fails. We dislike the guy who takes a risk capriciously and whines when it fails and we hate the guy who arrogantly takes a risk without spending even a little time to understand it. Playing the stock market is widely known to be a risk. Playing the stock market with your life savings is such a foolish risk it is a stereotype.