When the corporate infrastructure ramped up the ass-play…?

In all seriousness, the stock market has been a gambling play-thing for the wealthy for a long time. In finance you can fail into substantial amounts of money.

If the markets were governed by a legitimate authority it might be more prudent to put away substantial savings in bonds etc. - but the lifetime savings of a good chunk of the population will never be enough to make a significant difference in retirement, let alone a difference worth a lifetime of sacrificing every opportunity to enjoy it.