Outside of utility and bank stocks nobody pays dividends. I don't know anybody with $10M in stock that actually worked for it (outside of some celebrities), most people with that kind of money inherited it or sold a family business and parked it there.



Stocks have gone up over the last few decades because companies quit their Pension plans and started contributing to 401K plans plus personal IRA. So each payday billions of dollars are dumped into the stock market which has to buy something with it and stock prices rise. Those stocks pay nothing and are only worth having if they go up in value so some other sucker will buy them back at a profit. The second money coming out is less then money going in the whole thing starts to implode (baby boomers all retire). The jobs most people have today just can't finance the payout plus Wall streets cut. Why do you think home loans quit being financed for by small local banks and they ended up going to wallstreet to package those loans and were then sold overseas? When the locals can't finance stuff let the rich in Europe and Asia do it for you. Banks used to want people to have savings accounts with them so they could lend that money and make a profit with it and share that with you. Interest rates for band deposits now are under 2% and unless you have $x amount in that account they charge you a month annoyance fee to digitally keep track of your money. Banks get their loan money from the fed for nothing. Federal reserve banks pay 2.5% (was lower last year and after the crash it was pretty much free) for all the money they want from the FED which just makes it up out of thin air.