[apak]

Nh. That aside, your faith in brokers is touching but a tad misguided imo. And sure, if you invest right -- i.e. get lucky -- your capital might increase 20-fold over 50 years. What if you underperform the market? (Most investors, amateur and professional, do.) What if the market doesn't increase over the next 50 years?
(You think it can't happen? Take a look at the graph for the last century, focus on some of the 25+ year intervals without improvement, and remember that was a great century for the American economy.)