"that would mean we have a gifting economy"
Yep, checks in the mail. Money for nothing (straight out of Dire Straits).
Bush did it, Rudd did it (I understand = copycat, but of course he saved the country from the GFC, right? So he said when I returned here 2009. An honest man.)
And much gifting with QE4, which will find its way (again) into stock markets, hence the bull of 2009 thru 2014/15, along with corporate stock buybacks based on cheap money - but still debt (for obvious reasons; EPS and P/E). Those were the SOLE two reasons.
Rhetorical question:
As a general statement: typically, who owns stocks? i.e which social class, group, etc.
Some options, there may be others
1. The Upper Middle Class / Wealthy
2. The increasingly hollowed out Middle Class
3. The Working Poor
4. Those just Poor, not working
5. Prisoners
6. The Simpsons
7. whatever I missed
