I'm a writer and a thinker, which means I'm always thinking about quite a few different things. today those thoughts amount to a quick little primer on inflation, by way of a different way of looking at things.
Most people fail to realize that inflation truly is theft, plain and simple. So allow me to demonstrate.
Suppose you have $10, and the list of things to purchase is as follows:
-Bread 50 cents a loaf.
-Milk $1 a gallon
-Movie ticket $2.00
-Gas 50 cents a gallon
Don’t laugh, these were real prices back in the day (actually, gas was closer to 35 cents a gallon when I was a kid, but I’m trying to keep the math simple).
For that $10 you can get 1 loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, 2 theater tickets, and 9 gallons of gas. Sounds great. But now suppose someone raises those prices to these:
-Bread $1 a loaf
-Milk $2 a gallon
-Movie ticket $4.00
-Gas $1.00 a gallon.
Now you can only afford a loaf of bread, gallon of milk, just the one movie ticket for yourself, and only 3 gallons of gasoline. But hey, that’s not theft, right? You still have your original $10, you just have to tighten your belt a bit. Okay then, suppose now we’re at:
-Bread $1.50 a loaf
-Milk $3.00 a gallon
-Movie ticket $3.00
-Gas $1.50 a gallon
Now you’re faced with getting the loaf of bread, gallon of milk, and skip the movie if you want to put 3 gallons of gas in your car and have $1 left over. But this still isn’t theft, because I still have my original $10, it just doesn’t buy as much but at least now I have a dollar left over, right?
Now let’s try it a different way. The prices are as they were originally and will never change, however, before you’re about to make your purchases someone STEALS $5 away from your $10. That is clearly thievery, call the cops. But wait, with the original prices, your $5 will still buy you 1 loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, the one movie ticket, and three gallons of gasoline; the EXACT same amount you could get when inflation doubled the prices.
Now suppose that a thief stole $6.67 from your $10. Even bigger thievery, right? But you would still be able to buy the exact things when prices had tripled for your original $10, so why is this now thievery and it wasn’t when the prices were going up but you still had your full $10?
There is literally no difference between the two; the final verdict is in your effective buying power. Inflation is thievery pure and simple, and the guys/bankers behind it are the thieves. You have to wonder when you’re being told that your $1 can feed some third-world African kid for a week that if maybe– while they are still very much poor– if their local currency isn’t perhaps a lot stronger than ours. Who then is the third-world economy? We have the neat high-tech toys, but that does not prosperity make.