I realise this is a joke but there are economic reasons to expect stocks to go up in real terms on average in the long term. Investing in the long term is not a zero sum game.
That used to be case when you had to clear certain hurdles to IPO and stay listed. With the recent SPAC craze you no longer have to meet any of those. All you need is a credible narrative. In that environment, no, you shouldn’t expect stocks to have positive returns. Long-term positive return in stocks is purely a function of required rate of _cash_ return. But if an underlying business is never meant to ever distribute cash back to investors, the stock is worth exactly ZERO. In other words a ponzi scheme.
You shouldn’t expect EVERY stock to have positive returns. Unless the bad stocks to which you're referring become a considerable part of the market, you should still expect stocks, on average, to earn you real interest.
