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Oligarchs and old money would love to maintain ownership of capital economies and deflationary currency exaggerates and encourages that. The point of a small l

Oligarchs and old money would love to maintain ownership of capital economies and deflationary currency exaggerates and encourages that. The point of a small limited inflation is to encourage a healthy flow of capital into services, workers, and development of activities. http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/whyaust.htm http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/bcaplan/whyaust.htm

stale2002 9y ago
OK, but the point is that the people who want to use inflationary currencies already have lots of options. Good for them. They are free to use those. And those of us who prefer deflationary ones should be free to use those as well. I don't get why the mere existence of alternatives pisses off economists and the like so much. If inflationary currencies are so great, then that's fine, feel free to go use those, and those of us that disagree will choose something else.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
  It would appear the choice between deflationary and inflationary monetary systems was, at some point along the way, democratised. And the majority chose inflationary monetary systems. Each of us is free to offer to pay for goods and services with, say, for example, gold, and each of us is free to ask you trade your gold for legal tender and give us that instead - yeah, the one the tax agency accepts. The only thing stopping deflationary currency from being used by most people is that most people are too busy surfing / skiing / rock climbing / recovering from a hang over / what have you to care much about how monetary value is exchanged. People, on the whole, only seem to really care about convenience. And more specifically, the more convenient it is to spend money, your own or credit, the better.
- s73v3r_ 9y ago
  You don't really have a choice, though. If you want to do business with most people, you're going to be doing it in inflationary currencies.
  - freedomben 9y ago
    But is that the way it should be? Also, this isn't universally true. There are some vendors that started accepting Bitcoin as payment. Some of them stopped accepting it a few months ago when transaction fees were insane, but there are still some that do. You can even get debit cards that automatically convert to fiat on the backend, so the consumer can hold crypto and pay in fiat.
    - s73v3r_ 9y ago
      "But is that the way it should be?" Unless you want to be able to force others to accept whatever you want to give as payment, sure.

stale2002 9y ago

OK, but the point is that the people who want to use inflationary currencies already have lots of options. Good for them. They are free to use those. And those of us who prefer deflationary ones should be free to use those as well. I don't get why the mere existence of alternatives pisses off economists and the like so much. If inflationary currencies are so great, then that's fine, feel free to go use those, and those of us that disagree will choose something else.

TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
It would appear the choice between deflationary and inflationary monetary systems was, at some point along the way, democratised. And the majority chose inflationary monetary systems. Each of us is free to offer to pay for goods and services with, say, for example, gold, and each of us is free to ask you trade your gold for legal tender and give us that instead - yeah, the one the tax agency accepts. The only thing stopping deflationary currency from being used by most people is that most people are too busy surfing / skiing / rock climbing / recovering from a hang over / what have you to care much about how monetary value is exchanged. People, on the whole, only seem to really care about convenience. And more specifically, the more convenient it is to spend money, your own or credit, the better.
s73v3r_ 9y ago
You don't really have a choice, though. If you want to do business with most people, you're going to be doing it in inflationary currencies.
- freedomben 9y ago
  But is that the way it should be? Also, this isn't universally true. There are some vendors that started accepting Bitcoin as payment. Some of them stopped accepting it a few months ago when transaction fees were insane, but there are still some that do. You can even get debit cards that automatically convert to fiat on the backend, so the consumer can hold crypto and pay in fiat.
  - s73v3r_ 9y ago
    "But is that the way it should be?" Unless you want to be able to force others to accept whatever you want to give as payment, sure.