When the purchasing power of currency goes down, the people with the most currency actually lose the most, meaning the rich. In this way, there is a flattening effect. In cases of hyperinflation, having 3 million dollars is scarcely better than having 300, and money is revealed to be the apparition that it actually has been all along. The negative impacts of being unable to purchase basic goods and services also acutely affect the working class, but in a lot of cases that's already true in a "healthy" economy.

This is the reason the bourgeoisie is always pulling their hair out about it. It's also only ever used as a pretense to do austerity and extract even more wealth from the working class while cutting basic services.

Since value comes from labor instead of markets or scarcity, inflation also literally wouldn't effect our standard of living in a meaningful way at all if we set in place robust mutual aid networks and centers and divide the labor in a more just way.

When the narratives of capitalist realism and market necessity start to erode, this is actually a good thing, and this is the case with inflation as long as we are organized and prepared to exist beyond the market.

  • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    are you fucking high?

    "Yes, i should be pro my own starvation because the capitalists are mildly inconvenienced"

    • Three_Magpies [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The 'inflation is good' stance around here drives me bananas. Like yeah, bread and gasoline and entertainment is now WAY more expensive and my wages haven't gone up but, conceptually, some investment banker is sweating because his APY% changed slightly. I've heard that rent is 21% more expensive since the pandemic -- it frustrates me to hear people talk about inflation like it's a good thing that benefits me.

      • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        this site is mostly privileged college kids, they don't give a shit about the poor

        • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Or they've never seen or lived through the impacts that toying with inflation can cause to an underdeveloped/overexpoilted economy, like a lot of economies in the global south.

          • seitanicRights [she/her]
            hexagon
            ·
            3 years ago

            Revolution? A militant working class?

            Weird how many of the worst cases of inflation in history happened just after a socialist state liberalized.

        • CyborgMarx [any, any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Don't be too hard on them plz, they're interpreting the inflation panic as an attack on wage increases and stimulus spending, both things millinienals are rightfully sensitive about defending

          And with the media insidiously presenting covid inflation as a wage-price spiral that literally doesn't exist, it's all adding to the confusion concerning price hikes

          • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            i refuse to coddle the profound ignorance of the privileged when i literally spell out exactly what the problem is and they ignore it

    • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      again it's not the fault of inflation that you are poor, it is the fault of capitalists not paying you enough for the value of your labor. "Inflation control" is often used by the Federal Reserve, US Empire, and the IMF to justify their imperialism around the world. High inflation creates instability and wrecks capitalist profit generation, as a communist revolutionary you should support both of those things happening and fight for higher pay in the meantime

      • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        how the fuck do you not understand this?

        food costs more, therefore i can afford to eat less

        • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          no I understand your situation. Food costs more money because money is worth less now. Yet your labor should also cost more money for the same reason. Of course it's the USA so capitalists won't raise wages unless they are literally forced to, but that is their fault. It fucking sucks I'm sorry you're in that situation but blaming inflation for the problem excuses the capitalists.

          Inflation is just the price of money and that price is kept artificially high by a variety of capitalist institutions because capitalists hold the more money than anyone else. A socialist state could use higher inflation rates in some very positive ways that would benefit workers the most.

              • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
                ·
                3 years ago

                thanks. I'm not going to argue with people about their real material conditions like hunger, but the effects of inflation are literally basic economics and are already well known. Inflation hurts economic growth, and capitalists rely on increasing economic growth to survive. If you want to attack the capitalist financial system that dominates and enslaves the world, high inflation is like a stake to the heart of that beast because it directly reduces returns across the board. Yeah sure the capitalists are so rich they will never have to worry about starving, but it's not like poor people weren't starving in America before inflation went up. Declining material conditions cause destabilization and precipitate revolution, which you should be interested in as a communist anyway.

              • Swoosegoose [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                Prices go up

                Wage doesn't go up

                I can afford less

                How the fuck do you not understand that, just cause you managed to get a pay bump doesnt mean everyone else is