3 ms·

If you have a bank account of almost zero, inflation can't possibly be stealing money from you (unless you also have gobs of cash under a mattress somewhere).

rocky1138 10y ago
Except that the prices of everything rise every year.
- oconnore 10y ago
  Blaming wage stickiness relative to prices is different than blaming inflation. And, outside unions and jobs with competitive labor markets, the best advocate for wage un-stickiness many workers have is government involvement via the minimum wage.
  - WillPostForFood 10y ago
    96% of hourly workers already earn more than minimum wage, so it shouldn't be the first place to look at improving wage stickiness. Start with the cost of employment, primarily health care, which has sucked up a lot of money that should have gone to wage increases. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm
    - oconnore 10y ago
      Minimum wage sets a floor which affects wages close to it, too.
      - WillPostForFood 10y ago
        Let me try a different tack. Wages used to go up without relying on minimum wage. Wages have flattened, so there are a bunch of other issues that should be looked at before just forcing wages up, which can have all sorts of unintended consequences, especially if the real reasons wages are flat aren't addressed first.
        oconnore 10y ago
        You're right. Raising or lowering minimum wage purchasing power is worthy of caution, but having minimum wage track inflation is an economic no-op, not a shift in policy.
        dnautics 10y ago
        it's not an economic no-op, because then the fight begins over who gets to measure inflation. Moreover, if the tracking isn't continuous (which it can't possibly be), during the 'between periods' there's wage devaluation which disproportionately affect the poor. The WHOLE POINT of inflation is that it screws over wageearners: https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-higher-inflation/ https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-hi... "even in the long run, it’s really, really hard to cut nominal wages. Yet when you have very low inflation, getting relative wages right would require that a significant number of workers take wage cuts. So having a somewhat higher inflation rate would lead to lower unemployment, not just temporarily, but on a sustained basis."
        heurist 10y ago
        So the choices are wait for the economy to suddenly unfuck itself or give our lowest earners am immediate boost?
        WillPostForFood 10y ago
        Turns out there are more than two choices, so no. http://wiki.c2.com/?FalseDichotomy http://wiki.c2.com/?FalseDichotomy
- dakrootie 10y ago
  Everything? True, some prices have risen. But, if I may, here are some fun equations to ponder. 1996 (Florida) Minimum wage $4.25 Gallon of milk $2.73 Gallon of gas $1.26 Dozen eggs $1.31 2017 Minimum wage $8.10 Gallon of milk $3.31 Gallon of gas $2.41(was almost $4.00, if I remember correctly a few years ago?) Dozen eggs $1.59 1996 Electronics (to do work, using one's natural talents, for example) Expensive. 2017 Electronics: Much cheaper. Adjusting for inflation: much, much cheaper. Of course, with electronics, there are too many intricacies to list, but here's a specific one. I bought a 512MB compact flash card in 2001, which set me back $249. I think the last one I bought was 2 years ago, or so. It was $60 for 16 GB. I make my living taking pictures. What would 16 GB worth of pictures have cost me in 2001? I'm happy with these numbers. Simply put, let's think very carefully before using absolutes.
  - dnautics 10y ago
    Since you've cherry picked your data to support an observation of no inflation, do you also support not increasing the minimum wage?
    - dakrootie 10y ago
      There is acknowledgement of inflation in every one of my examples, save certain electronics. I have no idea how to answer this question as I didn't deny prices increased.
astrange 10y ago
It's more likely to give you money unless you're a lender and not a debtor.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

rocky1138 10y ago

Except that the prices of everything rise every year.

oconnore 10y ago
Blaming wage stickiness relative to prices is different than blaming inflation. And, outside unions and jobs with competitive labor markets, the best advocate for wage un-stickiness many workers have is government involvement via the minimum wage.
- WillPostForFood 10y ago
  96% of hourly workers already earn more than minimum wage, so it shouldn't be the first place to look at improving wage stickiness. Start with the cost of employment, primarily health care, which has sucked up a lot of money that should have gone to wage increases. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2015/home.htm
  - oconnore 10y ago
    Minimum wage sets a floor which affects wages close to it, too.
    - WillPostForFood 10y ago
      Let me try a different tack. Wages used to go up without relying on minimum wage. Wages have flattened, so there are a bunch of other issues that should be looked at before just forcing wages up, which can have all sorts of unintended consequences, especially if the real reasons wages are flat aren't addressed first.
      - oconnore 10y ago
        You're right. Raising or lowering minimum wage purchasing power is worthy of caution, but having minimum wage track inflation is an economic no-op, not a shift in policy.
        dnautics 10y ago
        it's not an economic no-op, because then the fight begins over who gets to measure inflation. Moreover, if the tracking isn't continuous (which it can't possibly be), during the 'between periods' there's wage devaluation which disproportionately affect the poor. The WHOLE POINT of inflation is that it screws over wageearners: https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-higher-inflation/ https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/the-case-for-hi... "even in the long run, it’s really, really hard to cut nominal wages. Yet when you have very low inflation, getting relative wages right would require that a significant number of workers take wage cuts. So having a somewhat higher inflation rate would lead to lower unemployment, not just temporarily, but on a sustained basis."
      - heurist 10y ago
        So the choices are wait for the economy to suddenly unfuck itself or give our lowest earners am immediate boost?
        WillPostForFood 10y ago
        Turns out there are more than two choices, so no. http://wiki.c2.com/?FalseDichotomy http://wiki.c2.com/?FalseDichotomy
dakrootie 10y ago
Everything? True, some prices have risen. But, if I may, here are some fun equations to ponder. 1996 (Florida) Minimum wage $4.25 Gallon of milk $2.73 Gallon of gas $1.26 Dozen eggs $1.31 2017 Minimum wage $8.10 Gallon of milk $3.31 Gallon of gas $2.41(was almost $4.00, if I remember correctly a few years ago?) Dozen eggs $1.59 1996 Electronics (to do work, using one's natural talents, for example) Expensive. 2017 Electronics: Much cheaper. Adjusting for inflation: much, much cheaper. Of course, with electronics, there are too many intricacies to list, but here's a specific one. I bought a 512MB compact flash card in 2001, which set me back $249. I think the last one I bought was 2 years ago, or so. It was $60 for 16 GB. I make my living taking pictures. What would 16 GB worth of pictures have cost me in 2001? I'm happy with these numbers. Simply put, let's think very carefully before using absolutes.
- dnautics 10y ago
  Since you've cherry picked your data to support an observation of no inflation, do you also support not increasing the minimum wage?
  - dakrootie 10y ago
    There is acknowledgement of inflation in every one of my examples, save certain electronics. I have no idea how to answer this question as I didn't deny prices increased.

astrange 10y ago

It's more likely to give you money unless you're a lender and not a debtor.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]