Clarification, for the benefit of the sibling comments: inflation screws the poor because (1) the poor are most likely to be on either fixed incomes, or income

Clarification, for the benefit of the sibling comments: inflation screws the poor because (1) the poor are most likely to be on either fixed incomes, or incomes where cost-of-living adjustments are substantially time-delayed relative to the increased cost of living, and (2) they're least likely to have any sort of hedge against inflation or sudden shocks to the system, such as having a paid-off house, a fixed-rate mortgage, adequate savings to handle an emergency, or investments in assets other than plain ol' US Dollars That Only Come In On The First And Fifteenth. The middle class weather inflation just fine -- they're likely to get yearly raises that outpace inflation, to have savings to be able to handle unexpected price increases, and to have at least some assets that keep up with inflation even if their liquid accounts don't. And the wealthy benefit from inflation, because their factories keep producing widgets but their labor costs go down relative to the price of widgets.