So true.  I've read that General Electric is the only original  member of the Dow 30 that is still in existence and in the index.  Look at the world's oldest company, the Hudson's Bay - recently sold ( in 2006 for $1 . 1 billion) and rumoured to now be worth perhaps $7 billion.  Sounds like a lot, but if you discount that for all it's 347 years of existence by the average compounded, ex dividend average 6.5% annual rate for the stock market, it comes out to an original value in today's dollars of about two dollars and twenty six cents!  All those men and ships must have cost far more than that, even in  circa 1670 money, meaning that it vaporized most of its capital.  Probably most companies lose all their capital and retained earnings, given enough time, and only the stream of dividends that they produced while operating had real value.