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by mc32 1687 days ago
It's the poor who this hits most. Most tech workers can 'absorb' this. We may get raises, bonuses, etc., to make up the diff.

But your average Joe and Jill in the world working restaurants or deliveries, they can't just shrug it off.
3 comments
newacct583 1687 days ago
That's almost exactly backwards, where are you getting this? The big inflation driver right now is (1) the increase in liquid cash in the economy due to covid relief programs and (2) the higher wage levels needed to get people to work during a pandemic.

The "poor" are, in fact, doing significantly better (economically, anyway) now than they were in 2019. I'll have to go look it up, but there was a great blog post a few months back looking at poverty statistics over the pandemic. The relief bills helped a ton.

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dnautics 1687 days ago
> The relief bills helped a ton.

Those are transitory, and even if they become permanent, never forget, inflation is a compounding process, so to keep up there must be the political will to re-up them. Moreover, the irony is that the way to fund the relief bills is to create more inflation.

You are advocating putting all of society on an accelerating treadmill that pushes people backwards towards poverty.

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newacct583 1687 days ago
> Those are transitory

Exactly. So is the pandemic. And so is the resulting inflation. I think you agree with me.

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dnautics 1687 days ago
Good luck with your wishful thinking. The pandemic will end, inflation will not.
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dnautics 1687 days ago
Joe and Jill? What about your unemployed person, formerly-middle-income retiree on fixed salary, homeless person surviving by panhandling, nonprofit serving the poor/homeless...

Inflation is nothing but fucking over the people who can handle it the least.

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ForHackernews 1687 days ago
Poor people are debtors: Inflation is a huge positive for them! If I owe $10,000 of credit card debt at a nominal 25% APR, I am praying for that hyperinflation to kick in soon.
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mc32 1687 days ago
The cost of borrowing goes up with inflation.

It’s like has prices. They go up before the new delivery is in the grind tanks, but goes back down way after the expensive gas in the ground was all sold.

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