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.

    • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      stocks and bonds (the most popular assets by far) are severely affected by inflation actually. 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.

        • seitanicRights [she/her]
          hexagon
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          And the economy imploding is good. How many empty houses are there for each unhoused person again?

          Also working class people by and large live paycheck to paycheck.

          • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]
            ·
            3 years ago

            The economy imploding is only good if we are ready for it.

            I'd be happy to talk about my efforts to get ready for collective response in the event of a crash, in private. I am a couple months away from reaching a benchmark in this. PM me if you wanna talk about putting a life together outside the market, I've been in contact with many people who have a similar disposition about collapse.

      • CyborgMarx [any, any]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Because they're dumbass neolibs, still traumatized by the 1970s who somehow think inflation is only the result of wage-price spirals and couldn't possibly be caused by supply side price gouging and rent seeking opportunism after demand began to pick up post lockdown