Agreed on the above point that patronage/network access locks out most accredited investors from the hottest deals. PE/VC is a prime example of this, where the top decile make out like bandits. I'd like to add that speculating on IPOs is like participating in pseudo-alternative asset class - not necessarily capturing value through public equities as the author describes. The level of your earnings/expected earnings, retirement goals, age, level of risk-aversion etc. affect where you place your money. Common sense says that far fewer than 96% of Americans would be well-served having access to this class.
I think this discussion gets too polarized around "speculating on IPOs" too quickly. Think instead about the general characteristics of the overall equity market. Assume for example that you simply hold the market index.
What's happened over the last 15 years is that growth has been mostly stripped out of the public market -- due to the collapse of IPOs and the reduction in publicly listed US companies from 8800 in 1997 to 4100 now. The result is a public market that is more and more just old, slow-growing companies. That's fine if that's what you want, but for people who are investing their retirement savings over a multi-decade period, that's bad news. (E.g. the overall stock market is flat over the last 15 years adjusted for inflation -- I don't think that's a coincidence.)
People should hold money in an asset allocation (mix of equities, bonds etc.) that is appropriate for their risk profile - not necessarily in 100% index-tracking funds. You're suggesting that investors beat the market by taking on more risk. As an aside, a great deal of real value has been created by publicly listed companies over the last 15 years.
