American,
A few bad apples have got you out of the market eh? The situation isn't nearly that bad. There are about 10,000 companies that have to publicly report their numbers, maybe 20 have done things blatantly wrong. Add in another 500 that probably are pushing their luck with the numbers. That still leaves well over 90% that are following a myriad of difficult rules and giving people a fair look at their numbers. How is that a scam?
Rental housing on the other hand is an easy profession, for now. Any poor schlep that bought a house 5 years ago in most markets could say its a great business, but it won't always be this way. Further the people that do that highly underestimate the costs. If you do repairs or upgrades yourself, sure seems cheap, but what about your time? I have a friend that could easily do a second part-time job in the time he spends on his rental income "job" and when it comes down to it, he could make almost as much money on it. This is the fallacy of rental housing, if you have lots of time and enjoy the hassles and work then do it. But for most of us investing in stocks are a whole lot easier. Maybe the returns are less, but we don't have to do essentially a second job to get them.
