As George Carlin said, “it’s a big club, and you’re not in it.” Capitalism is not for the little guy, or at least not the version we’ve built.
Nothing is stopping you from investing in a company, or putting your money into a stock or other investment. If anything, over the years the club has become a lot less exclusive. When did Carlin say that? Think about how much more access any given person, at least in the United States, has to financial products.
You do not have access to the investments or financial instruments that the ultrawealthy do. Your investments are not like their investments, your returns are not their returns, the rules and regulations you face are not the ones they face. They are playing a different game than you, even when they're doing it with your money.
Just like anyone who puts their money into an investment that fails... Stocks go up, stocks go down. I don't recall the exact details of the Brewdog investment scheme but some people losing their hat here is just a normal thing that happens in capital markets, otherwise investing wouldn't work. There's a reason that the predominant advice is to just set it and forget it with S&P 500 funds or total market (US or global) funds. It's up to you as an independent person to identify good opportunities for yourself or to consume and understand advice.
> You do not have access to the investments or financial instruments that the ultrawealthy do. Your investments are not like their investments, your returns are not their returns, the rules and regulations you face are not the ones they face. They are playing a different game than you, even when they're doing it with your money.
This is directionally true and angsty but it's beside the point. What's the alternative? Nobody gets to invest in anything?
While "the wealthy" have access to other opportunities that you don't have access to, you still have access to enough opportunities to make money.
We are both saying that the rules and conditions under which you and I invest in companies and the market are substantially different than those in which the ultrawealthy invest in the market, and ours carry both higher risks and more onerous terms. You can argue whatever you want about why that is or whether it should be, but we're not all on a level playing field, and that's relevant especially in an era when all of the answers to "how do I make myself secure against the vicissitudes of fate" involve "investing" in the market.
> and ours carry both higher risks and more onerous terms
Can you speak to your experience in investing? I’ve invested in both public and private market deals. There’s nothing safer in my mind than low-cost index funds which are as accessible as running water for all Americans. $1 and a Robinhood account or something are all you need. Granted you can get higher returns of course in private markets but to suggest in general that they are both less risky and higher returning sounds inaccurate to me.
I’m not trying to discredit your underlying point, the ultra wealthy do have access to better terms. They have more capital to deploy - it provides similar scaling discounts to other volume-based businesses.
[1] https://littlelaw.co.uk/p/the-1-billion-brewdog-deal-that-le...
This statement is not supported by the link you posted, nor any other reporting I've seen on the matter. What I have seen is that TSG is senior to all of the other equity holders, so if there's money to be had, they're getting it before the small holders.
Also from your link:
> TSG was promised an 18% compound return on its investment (which means the amount they’re owed grows by 18% each year, with each year building on the last).
> TSG’s preference shares entitle it to an 18% compound return on its £213 million investment. That return has snowballed over time. By 2024, it had grown to around £801 million.
I can't say for sure, but I don't believe those terms were available to the average investor.
If so I’d love to know what that is so I can go there.