[scatters]

All the evidence shows that a rate of inflation around 2% averaged over the business cycle is beneficial and necessary for the economy. Trying to adopt a deflationary currency is akin to refusing to drink water because people drown in lakes.

[mojuba]

> All the evidence shows...

There is no such evidence. There are those who benefit from inflation (and only if it's predictable for them) but the majority of people don't. Unless you define economy as something only the wealthy can benefit from - no, inflation is not good.

[clavigne]

The majority of people have wealth in real estate and generate income from wages, both of which are inflation neutral.

In contrast, the rich are much more likely to have bonds or cash holdings. They are the ones for whom inflation is a real problem. Why else would all this political pressure for a 2% inflation target exist? It's because that's low enough for the rich, not because it's high.

Printing money and redistributing it would severely impact capital holders, like it did in the post WWII boom which created the middle class.

Here is an entire book on this topic :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_...

[mojuba]

That's a great book, one of my favorites.

The wealth redistribution post-WW2 had more to do with the war itself than inflation though.

So back to the 21st century: what makes you think that those who have excess capital don't invest wisely? Compare that to lack of any excess capital for the majority.

[lilyball]

Lack of excess capital means inflation doesn't affect them as they have no capital to depreciate, as long as wages keep pace with inflation. The fact that the minimum wage doesn't keep pace with inflation is a huge problem, but the solution is to raise the minimum wage, not to throw out inflation.