We have one - the stock market. $100 invested in Amazon the day it started trading would be worth something like $20,000 today.
Investing in the market has become very democratized. Online brokers offer inexpensive access to everyone, and you can start investing for $100 or less.
You'll need some data to back that up!
> share of capital gains income
Low income people have an advantage because they don't pay capital gains taxes.
Gambling has a mathematical downward bias. Investing has a mathematical upward bias. (That's my definition of the difference.)
I find it rather unfair to argue that wealthy people make money off of investments, but that non-wealthy people shouldn't invest because positive returns are not guaranteed. Well, they aren't guaranteed for wealthy people, either, but they invest anyway.
The stock market is open to more people, but it still biases disproportionately for those that have more money.
This country does not consist of 1% super rich and 99% who do not have even $100.
EDIT: Forty-some percent of Americans don't have the cash on hand or free credit to handle an unexpected $400 expense. [0] That statistic is almost 3 years old. I doubt it's gone down in that time.
[0] http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/jun/09/...
Anyhow, it does not distinguish between "has no discretionary income" from "spent every dime they have". The latter is a common problem even among higher income folks.
People seem to be able to find the funds to buy iphones/booze/drugs/airjordans even down to the lowest levels.
The privatization that has happened in financing high-growth startups is not great news for Joe Q Public
Amazon has doubled in just the last two years. So did Netflix, Apple, etc., all long past their IPOs.
This was all available to John Q Public. Yet all I hear are complaints.