Historically, people have agreed with you... the free silver party was all about creating inflation so that debtor farmers could pay off their (presumably fixed

Historically, people have agreed with you... the free silver party was all about creating inflation so that debtor farmers could pay off their (presumably fixed-interest) debits with cheaper money. However, I think that the rise of the variable-rate loan means that inflation no longer helps debtors nearly as much as it once did. Also, for those working for others (rather than selling commodities directly, as the farmers during the free silver movement) ones paycheque does not always keep pace with inflation. The rich don't keep their assets in dollars, they keep them in things like stocks and realeastate, which tends to float with inflation. Inflation hits the middle/upper middle class by bumping us up in income tax brackets. If you are fortunate enough to have skills that are in demand, you can expect your wage to rise with inflation, however, tax brackets move much more slowly, so you end up paying more in taxes. As for the lower middle/lower class folks, people who aren't in high demand jobs, well, their pay quite often lags inflation by quite a lot. (in fact, some people see this as a positive of inflation. It's very difficult to issue pay cuts to employees without major morale issues. In inflationary times, simply not issuing raises does the same thing in an almost passive way. Good or not, it's no fun for the worker who sees his buying power shrink.) Of course, inflation hurts those on fixed incomes the most. Who knows? this might be our way out of the social security mess? but yeah, it's going to suck for the people depending on that cheque. So yeah, personally, I think that this idea that inflation helps the little guy is... outmoded.