Sorry. I exaggerated. See below. In particular, “I would “guess”, that 99% of all common stock issued in the past 200 years is totally worthless, but that is just a guess. Most people who bought stock since 1929, in all common stock ever issued since then , saw “most” of their investments go to zero.”
To make an honest comparison with gold and stocks, you have to include ALL stock, not just the best and most successful companies that still are around. You can easily see that an ounce of gold bought in 1929 still exists and is still very highly valued any where in the world. EVERYONE who holds that ounce of gold, after 80 years, still has that ounce of gold. In contrast, there are thousands of companies who had issued stock from 1929 until the present, who went out of business and that stock is now worthless. A share of General Motors, or Kmart/Kresge, or Pan Am airlines bought in 1929 is now worth nothing and if you want to include all costs and gains then you should include all stocks that people buy,not just those companies currently in the Dow. The fact of the matter is, that most common stock becomes worthless in much less than 80 years - few companies survive that long and you lose all your money. That is why the list of companies in the Dow Jones average is so different from the list of company names in 1929.
Since most common stock companies in the world pay no dividend, or a very tiny dividend, and since all bankrupt companies like Kresge and General Motors pay absolutely no dividend, then the gross total dividends for all issued stocks since 1929 would be canceled out by subtracting the sales commissions on buying, subtracting the income taxes, and by factoring in bankrupt stock that pays nothing. It is a wash… at best.
On the other hand, Gold is quite easy to compare, it never goes bankrupt, and virtually nobody pays income taxes on it …an ounce of gold is an ounce of gold, It is the same ounce it was in 1929 or 1809, and an ounce of gold is worth just as much today in Denver as it is in Geneva or Hong Kong.
I would “guess”, that 99% of all common stock issued in the past 200 years is totally worthless, but that is just a guess. Most people who bought stock since 1929, in all common stock ever issued since then , saw “most” of their investments go to zero. Maybe 1 out of a 100 companies still exist? Maybe?