So we know Inflation is mainly due to too much money swirling around in the economy and/or price gouging

Is the answer higher taxation on the rich? More price regulations? Or something more nuanced?

I changed the title from Leftist to Soc-dem, cause leftist answers usually mean complete revolution- what's an answer that I can condescendingly tell my centrist friends that will 'fix' the economy without throwing all working economists to :gulag:

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    2 things come to mind...

    The first is "Don't worry about inflation". Just get the money into hands that will spend it or regular human things. Won't stop private firms from raising prices but maybe price hikes won't hurt so much.

    Non-means tested 100% universal UBI.

    Are you a billionaire? Here's 2000 buckerinos a month until you renounce your citizenship or die.

    Are you living out of your car due to fucked up life circumstances? Here's 2000 buckerinos a month until your renounce your citizenship or die.

    Are you a houseless pan handler with mental health issues that makes being a "normal" and "respectable" member of society difficult? Here's 2000 buckerinos! (Society will make it somebody's job to make the rounds and remind everybody that they've got their monthly UBI deposit and give them a new card or hand out cash or whatever)

    The second would be "public" services that compete with "private" services. So wherever there is a "private" bank that does checking/savings/direct deposits/debit cards/loans there is a State/Federal bank that does all the same things but with less or no fees, less or no penalties, lower (or zero) interest rates on loans, simple instead of compound interest schemes when giving out loans. I'm sure there are other sectors where this could be applied.

    This might help with prices that are artificially inflated. I used banking in my example because ... well ... loan interest rates are often described by economists as a signal of risk that the lender is taking. Dumb thing is, if you make a large dollar principal loan more expensive by having a higher interest rate, doesn't that increase the risk that the loan wouldn't get paid back? If the loan officer thinks the lendee is a risk, either deny the loan outright, or loan out a smaller amount of money.