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.

  • DefinitelyNotAPhone [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Inflation of currency means nothing to someone who owns the means of production. You can't inflate away assets.

    • spectre [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Yes, "wealth" is measured in currency, but it is definitely not currency. Technically if Jeffy B. liquidated everything down to $100b in USD cash it would be a significant change to his class character.

    • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This is wrong. Bonds and stocks (the most popular assets, I guess besides real estate) are absolutely affected by inflation. They are actually some of the products most severely hit by high inflation. If you have a bond with a 10% annual return, inflation is going eat that first before you actually receive “real income”. 2% inflation in this case means a 8% annual return, but 12% inflation means the bond holder is literally losing money at -2% annually. You can see why banks would be very worried about high inflation because of this.