"even if one admits that welfare spending has increased the income of some poverty-stricken Americans. Unfortunately, it's done so at the cost of economy-wide productivity..."
Prove it. Where's the data on this?
https://reason.com/2024/01/04/3-economic-myths-that-need-to-die/?comments=true#comments
Ed McQuarrie talks the REAL History of Stocks and Bond performance.
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/most-stunning-fact-about-vanguards-etf-flows-2
This article shows people are pulling money out of mutual funds and putting it into index funds an example is VOO. Also Vanguard Primecap and Core fund opened the fund due to them both because of money being pulled out. INDEX ETF's way to go tax efficient and low expenses