[laichzeit0]

> not a single sane person on earth actually wants his purchasing power to decrease

As with all things in life, this is a tradeoff. I'm willing to concede decreasing purchasing power in exchange for some other advantage. Like I'm willing to exchange shitty battery life for a better and faster web browsing experience on my phone, or how I'm willing to exchange years off my life for some added pleasures like cigarettes and alcohol.

[honeybooboo123]

>> I'm willing to concede decreasing purchasing power in exchange for some other advantage

That may be, but that's something everyone should get to choose for themselves. In today's world, we don't, and that's wrong.

Besides, we're not even getting any advantages "in exchange" for losing our purchasing power to the machinations of governments and central banks everywhere. We're just getting milked and fleeced six ways from Sunday all the time.

[mikeash]

Are you proposing that each person should be able to choose the level of inflation that their own assets are subject to? How would that work?

[honeybooboo123]

Nope, I'm suggesting that we should be able to choose which currency to use. But now we can't.

If we could, we'd choose a sound currency, and then our purchasing power would keep increasing steadily (because of productivity improvements and wealth accumulating over time).

[mikeash]

We can't? I mean, I have to obtain USD to pay my taxes, but otherwise I can use currencies at will. I have a hard time finding anyone local who will accept or pay me in anything besides USD, but that's their own choice to do so.