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by Tarsul 1767 days ago
as always the real elephant in the room is that inflation is not bad per se, except for those whose wages don't grow as much as the inflation. And wages for low earners will rise. Thus, we are not really talking about inflation but more concretely about redistribution of wealth, only this time the low earners are getting more from the pie. Not the ones with the capital or the ones who don't work (anymore).

As for America, this can only be good imo because the inequality has long been way too high. Nonetheless, I don't agree that America will see long and sustained inflation and there are things that will stay too expensive even with rising wages (e.g. healthcare) so these effects will probably be short-lived unless the government policies will change something more substantly (and with the new stimulus packages coming, it could happen).

2 comments

>as always the real elephant in the room is that inflation is not bad per se, except for those whose wages don't grow as much as the inflation.

...Inflation affects savings too. So it doesn't matter that ones salary may increase at the same rate of inflation when the buying power of your savings in diminished by the rate of inflation. Tired of hearing the myopic view that inflation effectively does nothing if wages rise in step, it's just straight up incorrect.

> Thus, we are not really talking about inflation but more concretely about redistribution of wealth, only this time the low earners are getting more from the pie.

Can you elaborate on how it is redistribution of wealth for low earners? Genuinely curious.

A labor shortage = an increased demand for labor. If that labor can’t be purchased at the current market rate, then they’ll need to spend more on labor (increase wages), which in theory would come out of the salaries and benefits of the higher ups.

We’ll see if that actually happens though. Articles like this are designed to stir up fears of inflation so that they can get people on board with policies to keep wages lower.

EDIT: Saw the author’s reply higher up. It sounds like this isn’t their intent, but when the sound bite is “higher wages means more inflation”, it collectively feeds into the “be afraid of inflation” narrative that’s been building

> […] which in theory would come out of the salaries and benefits of the higher ups.

Or profits for the capital class.