A worrisome fact is how little many Americans know about stock market returns and historical performance. That ignorance limits the extent to which they participate in the long-run benefits that stock ownership conveys and by so doing exacerbates the inequality of wealth. An article from the current (October 18, 2018) issue of Fortune magazine, excerpted below, illustrates the problem. The article reports that 48% of respondents to a survey think that the stock market has not gone up in the decade following the bankruptcy of Lehman. In fact, the article reports, stocks are up 140% since then.