The "same rules apply to rich and poor" approach isn't complex to codify: it's the simplest. Just don't grant special privileges to people based on their net-wo

The "same rules apply to rich and poor" approach isn't complex to codify: it's the simplest. Just don't grant special privileges to people based on their net-worth. Nor is a competence test complex: I already outlined a possible regime. Just reuse any college degree in a related field, or any existing related professional certification (CPA/Series7/Bar). More generally, simply saying that "whatever test applies to the rich, will also apply to the poor" will tend to work itself out. Regulators will figure out some protective test that the rich can tolerate, and that's good enough for the poor as well. People are wealthier and more educated than ever before. More information about others' experiences is available at little cost. More people have incremental experience with similar instruments (such as public companies). But most importantly, anyone who's stayed 'middle-class' has already resisted thousands of kinds of legal scams, some promoted by the government (like lotteries and home-ownership-at-all-costs) that could easily relieve them of all their money. "Massive culling of the fortunes of the middle class at once and causing social unrest" is a paranoid, fancifully unrealistic scenario. Some people would dabble in private-investing like they have with many other financially risky activities, and over time they'd either receive positive reinforcement for sustainable actions, or negative reinforcement for recklessness. Investing in the same sorts of deals as millionaires is not an unprecedented and magically addictive activity that the poor can't resist.