There you go again, suggesting that others are stupid.
The last 5 years for the S&P have been cumulatively negative and you are calling that the best of times?
We can talk 'investments' all we want, but the economy is bigger than the DOW or the S&P.
Its almost like a scene I saw once.... a doctor and an artist were arguing... The doctor opined about how well he was doing and that 'he saved lives' for a living...and then went off on how the artist should go get a 'real job' and stop wasting his time...and how art was useless...
The artist then simply replied, "you save lives eh? So those you save can do what? Never listen to music again? Never see a painting?"
To mention that some people do poorly during the best of times is not to suggest they are stupid. Some are stupid. Some make stupid choices. Some have bad luck. Sometimes, it's Bush's fault!!!
People can and do make money in negative and even in sideways markets. That's why there are shorts. And not every listed company's stock went down, in the past five years.
As to the economy, during the past five years, it's been doing okay. Look at the unemployment figures. At no time, were the unemployment figures as terrible as they have been in times past. Just because YOU lost a job, doesn't mean that most people did. And personal wealth figures grew.
The doctor/artist analogy is specious!