The passive growth for the last 70 years was largely due to governments buying stocks (to prepare for future budget deficits from a population swing) and the population flooding the market trying to get returns and effectively boosting market prices.
If you look over a longer history, you will see that stocks on average did barely better than inflation. And that on average stock prices were close to equal to 4x the annual dividend issued.
Most stocks today have no dividends. It is a game of greater fools.
The passive growth for the last 70 years was largely due to governments buying stocks (to prepare for future budget deficits from a population swing) and the population flooding the market trying to get returns and effectively boosting market prices.
If you look over a longer history, you will see that stocks on average did barely better than inflation. And that on average stock prices were close to equal to 4x the annual dividend issued.
Most stocks today have no dividends. It is a game of greater fools.