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by lightelement 1882 days ago
Does inflation punish the poor more? It punishes people with savings, and people with savings are generally not poor. Inflation also helps anyone with a loan (because that loan just got "smaller"), and people with a lot of debt are generally poor as well.
2 comments

Right now I'd say probably the middle class it hurts the most. They would have more cash savings.

High net worth individuals it would hurt less as they usually have way more in assets such as stocks. But in the middle class, their stock exposure is often limited to their 401k or retirement plan.

I know quite a few people who had a downpayment in cash waiting to buy a house before this all started and are still looking. That value of cash went down quite a lot over the past year. Houses are up 40-50% YOY in some cases here (Arizona).

If wages don't go up though, this will also hurt the poor significantly.

It does punish them because minimum wage isn't indexed to inflation.