[HDThoreaun]

Monetary policy is one of the biggest reasons for the success of the world economy over the last century. Without fiat currency it would be impossible and loans would immediately get much more expensive, instantly destroying tech investment for starters.

[cheeseomlit]

A century is not a very long time, all things considered- we're all still high on the rush from this constant infusion of free cash, these are the good times. But I wouldn't base my entire outlook on how nice the good times are, there are massive risks involved with setting up a house of cards like this. There's a reason the constitution grants congress the sole authority to coin money, and implies quite clearly that money is to be silver/gold or backed by such. Nobody can be trusted with the authority to expand the money supply at will, unrestrained by the physical constraints of a commodity-based currency, free to print trillions upon trillions with no real oversight. That's how you end up with these ungodly banking cartels with disgusting amounts of political power (and all the corruption and cronyism that entails) while the middle class bears the burden of the feds inflationary practices, which is basically just an insidious form of hidden taxation. I'm not so sure that free money for tech startups is worth all that in the long run.

[HDThoreaun]

I'll just say that the rich and powerful existed far before fiat currency. The middle class has never been stronger than it is under fiat.

[cheeseomlit]

You're not wrong, and of course there are many more factors than just monetary policy alone that affect the lot of the middle class- But I'll point out that the middle class was much better off 50-60 years ago than it is now, back when fiat wasn't abused to the degree it has been for the past couple decades

[HDThoreaun]

In the US perhaps, but every other country also uses fiat and the global middle class has never been stronger. That suggests to me that there is a different, US specific reason for widening inequality.