People need to stop whining about the economy all the time. The economy is not an individual being. Its a sum of many different parts and aspects.
As for labor statistics, the economy is basically where it was before the 2008 crisis right now, so there's no reason to whine all the time.
As for hyperinflation a lot of people see all the time: it's not there! Check the official inflation data. Its very low compared to historical standards. If you don't believe in the measurement, check Gold prices if you wish. Also not indicating hyperinflation.
Comparing the S&P to the economy is also tricky. The S&P 500 is no measure for the economy at all. It is a stock performance index. That means that distributed dividends are being reinvested, which means that if everything remains exactly the same from one year to the other, the index would still rise by the %tage of Dividend yield in that year - not even counting profits that remain with the company at all, that would also drive up the inherent value of all businesses in the S&P. This is the compounding effect within the index.
The feeling that market levels and portfolio sizes don't matter for retirement is also not always helpful....
The dividend yield as a %tage of S&P Index Value is constantly going down, but as you can see, it's not negatively correlated with Index values in the recent decades.
http://www.multpl.com/s-p-500-dividend-yield/ That means if the index value goes down, so does your passive income as well. From 32,35 USD per 1 S&P Index in 12 / 2008 the Dividends fell to 24,12 USD per 1 S&P Index in 03/2010, thats a 25% decline. Thus, Index values do matter to passive income to some degree. Of course companies try to hold dividend stable even in rough economic times, but this only leads to a lower volatility for dividends than for the stock index as a whole. But in doing this, they pay more in dividends than they earn over certain periods of time, which is not sustainable over the long run.
It still is reasonable though to not look at market fluctuations. But not because they don't matter at all for FIRE, but instead because they are not in our control (remember that MMM article over things that are out of our own circle of influence..).
Also, people that focus on just their dividends received should take into account that you can rebalance your portfolio, from non-distributing stocks to dividend yield stocks. I bet everyone here would have loved to invest a couple of bucks in Warren Buffetts Partnership in the 1960s, although his Holding never paid a dime in dividends until this very day...