[zaroth]

It’s not a judgement against poor people. No one has their savings “wiped out” by inflation.

It is simply an annual cost for having assets, and an annual benefit for having debt. Since poor people necessarily have more debt on average than rich people, poor people on average benefit from higher inflation whereas to rich people it acts like a tax.

For people who want a weath tax, I say, why not just target a slightly higher inflation rate?

[agent008t]

I would argue that rich people have on average far, far more debt than poor people. Rich people also have far more ability to protect their assets from inflation than poor people.

With regards to "no one has their savings wiped out by inflation", tell that to, say, Russians in the early 90s. Very real and very significant savings in Sberbank turned to virtually nothing, i.e. wiped out, by inflation.

I would still argue that a higher unexpected inflation rate would hurt the poor the most, but may benefit middle class holding mortgages (although the more likely effect is that the negative effect on the overall economy would end up hurting everyone, with the poor being hurt the most).

[mijamo]

Inflation can hurts pretty badly pensions though, so it's not only a rich vs poor thing.

And also inflation is not uniform and depending on its composition can hurt poor people much worse than rich ones.

Historically I haven't found any clue that a higher inflation would help against inequalities. Actually the only literature I have found on the topic seems to indicate a positive correlation between inequalities and inflation but the relation between both seem very complex and not really understood/modeled correctly right now.

[leetcrew]

> Inflation can hurts pretty badly pensions though, so it's not only a rich vs poor thing.

all the more reason to keep moving away from defined benefit plans.

[nybble41]

> It [inflation] is simply an annual cost for having assets

Not all assets, just cash or claims denominated in cash (like loans). Most investments don't lose purchasing power just because you devalue the dollar. The poor are most likely to have the majority of their savings in the form of cash, for various reasons; minimum investment limits, for one, and also investing in general is more efficient when you have more money to invest. Below a certain point, the brokerage fees alone would outweigh any likely annual return. Moreover, in an inflationary economy consumer prices tend to rise faster than wages, so the purchasing power of labor declines. Deflation is just the opposite: Sure, wages are falling as the dollar becomes more valuable, but prices tend to fall even faster, so purchasing power increases.

If you're looking to tax wealth then inflation is not the answer.