[sokoloff]

I think of money as a claim check on labor (and to a lesser extent, other resources).

If everyone's income rises by 5% (and most of most people's income is spent rather than saved), I would expect prices to rise by about 5% and find that entirely logical.

[Retric]

Except not everyone gets a salary. Higher worker pay means investors for example get a lower share of economic gains.

[eli_gottlieb]

>If everyone's income rises by 5% (and most of most people's income is spent rather than saved), I would expect prices to rise by about 5% and find that entirely logical.

Generally everyone's income would be rising 5% either from inflation, which amounts to a transfer from creditors to debtors, or from growth, in which case the total basket of goods and services available has grown 5% and there's no need for prices to go up.

[carlmr]

You always have a mix. There will be growth in some markets, and inflation in others.

Humans tend to eat always roughly the same amount of food (except if they can't afford it). So food prices generally inflate with wage increases. Growth leads to bigger televisions, safer cars, faster internet being available at roughly the same price.

[eli_gottlieb]

>Humans tend to eat always roughly the same amount of food (except if they can't afford it). So food prices generally inflate with wage increases.

Quite the opposite. Over the long term, food prices have deflated, and the variety has dramatically increased of foods available at a given price and a given distance from the point of production.