Can “consumer protection” go as far as impede free will?

It is a thin line between consumer protection and patronizing, and most institutions are dangerously close to crossing it (or have they already?)

Last month one of the world’s biggest asset managers Fidelity Investments announced it would roll out 401(k) retirement plans with up to 20% of portfolios allocated to Bitcoin.

The officials’ reaction followed swiftly: the Department of Labour expressed its “grave concerns with what Fidelity has done”, and the infamous anti-crypto Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts went on attacking the company on the “consumer protection” grounds ?

So far Fidelity stands its ground: “As a Massachusetts-based company with a proven 75-plus-year history of doing what’s in the best interest of our customers, we look forward to continuing our respectful dialogue with policy makers to responsibly provide access with all appropriate consumer protections and educational guidance for plan sponsors as they consider offering this innovative product.”

However, the DoL’s political influence is not negligeable and they will most likely try and kill this initiative, using the same old crypto FUDs and a virtuous attitude of people who know better where other people should invest their savings.

But do they really? ? And how much power should state officials have over individual investments anyway?

? D.Center is a libertarian outlet and we believe that it’s people’s right to dispose of their money as they wish – sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad (that’s investment 101), but always of their own free will. We do believe that consumer protection is about giving investors the information needed to take decisions, and letting the investors actually take them.

How on Earth could we arrive at a situation where a 72-year-old lady from Massachusetts who thinks that “crypto is controlled by shadowy super-coders” is in the position to try and block an innovative proposal by a reputable asset management firm, which will sell it to people who are able to make an informed decision?

And what’s more, in the Land of the Free. Or so it was called…