“If you invested in an S&P 500 index fund in 1976 and reinvested all the dividends over the years, I believe you’d have a total return of almost 24,000% right now.”
If you bought a hen and rooster back in 1976, you could retire on the barbecued chicken wings alone.
Except a hen and a rooster would have ended up with you holding a highly illiquid investment with very high operating costs!