> My use of "simply" wasn't expressing the idea that the details of running such a business are trivial, but that it's an everyday thing that's been invented an

> My use of "simply" wasn't expressing the idea that the details of running such a business are trivial, but that it's an everyday thing that's been invented and not some speculative or impossible or unbelievable thing. Even so, what you propose doesn't quite exist, and my point was that this is because it isn't simple, or, if you will, that your use of "simply" was dismissive of the Devil that's in the details. Annuities and even perpetuities exist, but even characterizing them as an "everyday thing" is borderline misleading. An annuity is a common instrument for retirement. Otherwise, not so much. For your proposed use-case of turning long-term returns into short-term ones, for any investor that comes asking, they don't exist at all, AFAIK. > No, it's not meant to be different. "Outperformance" can mean performance relative to a given benchmark Fair enough. I was going off the understanding that the benchmark had to, itself, perform, which inflation does not (unlike, e.g., the S&P500, which describes actual performing assets). > Right now in the US, maybe it's not happening. Since the context is long-term, "right now" would need to be at least the past 3 decades, so that's an extraordinary "maybe" requiring extraordinary evidence. > But look at Japan and what's happened to investment returns and inflation in the last 30 years Japan's overall economic situation appears to be reflected in the Nikkei 225 returns (losses), so consistent with my thesis there, too. > I'm not promoting, say, gold, or bitcoin, or whatever alternative. And that's the crux of the issue. None of those examples have much opportunity to produce anything or create additional wealth, whereas companies do. More common alternatives are bonds, which are either another form of capturing the output of companies (including non-publically-traded ones) or of taxes (which, arguably, captures labor output, to the extent that it's income/payroll tax). True alternatives would need to be assets that could do the same, such as land (agriculture, mining).