Sure, but its done on average 9% the last 10 years and if you just invested in an S&p 500 etf you would have made a little over 13%. There are definitely down times but even if you started investing in January 2007 to ensure you caught the worst of the 2008 recession and just kept investing monthly for 7 years, your returns would be on average 12%. Of course all things end but historically and including now it works. Its a safer bet that you will get to a million in the stock market than putting your money in a bank where you are guaranteed to lose money each year with inflation.

Serious question, what's the alternative for a safer investment and having a real retirement? Everything booms and busts and then booms again (mostly).

The alternative is winning the birth lottery and sitting on so much real estate that the market doesn't really matter - it's just another source of more risky income.