this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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Showerthoughts
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I never understood why inflation was a good thing. I understand why it happens. But I can't wrap my head around the value of your money going down being good.
Maybe so you actually spend it. But then it also keeps you from saving up for bigger purchases or having some emergency money tucked away.
I'm not sure it's "good" on its own, it's maybe more that the alternative (deflation) is worse. A steady value might be preferable but I'm not sure that's realistic, so a small amount of inflation is probably the best you can hope for? 🤷
The idea that a little inflation is better than none comes from the thought that money should be changing hands as much as possible, and if money kept its value people would be incentivized to save all their money and keep it to themselves, and that would remove it from the economy. But if the value of that cash goes away people will want to invest it in something that might not lose its value, like a service.
Idk that's just the way it's always been explained around me I'm not some money jockey
Problem with money is that money only have value when people are willing to exchange money for goods and services.
The moment that exchange stops, value of money plummets.
A very good analogy I saw in Charles Stross’ “Neptune’s brood” is that money is a concrete representation of an abstract debt. Exchange materializes that debt into a trade, which is where valuation happens. I’m pretty sure I just made a lot of economists justifiably angry though