My dad grew up Amish and while I don't interact with them regularly, I do from time to time. There are a few factors which contributed to their fleecing here:
- Inexperience of Amish in investing/no one to mentor their investing
- “It's the lure of easy money, it's got a very strong appeal." No one is immune here.
- There is a very strong sense of conformity among the Amish - no one was willing to recoup their investment if everyone else was staying in.
- The Amish have a knee-jerk distrust of just about anything government-related.
- Inexperience of Amish in investing/no one to mentor their investing
- “It's the lure of easy money, it's got a very strong appeal." No one is immune here.
- There is a very strong sense of conformity among the Amish - no one was willing to recoup their investment if everyone else was staying in.
- The Amish have a knee-jerk distrust of just about anything government-related.