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.

  • poopoobanana [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I find it hard to believe, do you have a good source?

    S&P 500 companies have ~$2.7 trillion in just cash. According to the IMF itself, the amount of money stashed in tax havens was ~$36 trillion in 2016. That by itself is most definitely more than the emergency savings of the entire world's working class. Also, around 50% americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings.