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Do you think it's fair, that the government issues you a Dollar one year, and the next year, they devalue it by 2% or more? then they devalue it some more ever

Do you think it's fair, that the government issues you a Dollar one year, and the next year, they devalue it by 2% or more? then they devalue it some more every year 2% or more? If we can't even rely on a stable currency, what is the point of government? we might as well go back to bartering. In fact, this is what is happening. As people can't rely on money to hold it's value anymore, they're going back to hard assets like stocks, and real estate.

JumpCrisscross 7y ago
> Do you think it's fair, that the government issues you a Dollar one year, and the next year, they devalue it by 2% or more? Inflation is at record lows. If anything, deflation is rearing its ugly head.
- isoskeles 7y ago
  Rent doesn’t seem to have gotten cheaper. Food too. And education and health care. How exactly is inflation at record lows, because the BLS said so?
  - AnthonyMouse 7y ago
    Those things cost more relative to other things. Inflation is everything costs more, specifically including wages, because dollars aren't worth as much. The reason e.g. rents are high is that there is high demand for housing in cities and zoning restricts new construction. That's not inflation.
  - rawbeef 7y ago
    Oh boy. Tin foil hats here we come. Look up consumer price index. You can do this yourself if you really want, but I'm guessing you don't churn your own butter for the same reason you wouldn't want to do this: Go to the super market, pick out a bunch of items, average the cost of them and chart that average over time. There is no conspiracy here. Measuring inflation is very straight forward.
    - asdfadsfgfdda 7y ago
      Measuring inflation is not straight forward. How do you calculate inflation of completely new products, like smartphones? How do you measure inflation on a car that is superior in every attribute (fuel economy, safety, reliability) to a car of 10 years ago? How do you measure inflation on non-rival goods, like access to wikipedia?
    - cdiddy2 7y ago
      Yes there is conspiracy here. We have changed the way we measure inflation over the years. It completely changed how we count housing costs and technology. "if we calculated inflation today the same way we did during Carter’sadministration, CPI would be closer to 10% rather than the 1.5% calculated as of 12/31/10 by the government." https://www.cornerstonewm.com/downloads/measuring-inflation.pdf https://www.cornerstonewm.com/downloads/measuring-inflation....
- cdiddy2 7y ago
  I disagree. Inflation is only low because we don't measure it right. https://www.cornerstonewm.com/downloads/measuring-inflation.pdf https://www.cornerstonewm.com/downloads/measuring-inflation.... Inflation is much closer to whats listed here for many americans. https://chapwoodindex.com/ https://chapwoodindex.com/
snowwrestler 7y ago
You're acting like the government invented inflation; it didn't. Before central banks, inflation fluctuated freely in the economy, sometimes very high, sometimes into significant deflation. This volatility exacerbated other economic or financial fluctuations, causing a lot of problems. The goal of central banking is not to introduce or create inflation, but to manage it for greater certainty in long-term investment. A steady 2%/year inflation is a stable currency. If you think it's bad knowing that your dollar will devalue 2% every year, imagine trying to make plans not know whether it was going to drop or go up 7% next year--or anything in between.
Robotbeat 7y ago
Yes.

JumpCrisscross 7y ago

> Do you think it's fair, that the government issues you a Dollar one year, and the next year, they devalue it by 2% or more? Inflation is at record lows. If anything, deflation is rearing its ugly head.

isoskeles 7y ago
Rent doesn’t seem to have gotten cheaper. Food too. And education and health care. How exactly is inflation at record lows, because the BLS said so?
- AnthonyMouse 7y ago
  Those things cost more relative to other things. Inflation is everything costs more, specifically including wages, because dollars aren't worth as much. The reason e.g. rents are high is that there is high demand for housing in cities and zoning restricts new construction. That's not inflation.
- rawbeef 7y ago
  Oh boy. Tin foil hats here we come. Look up consumer price index. You can do this yourself if you really want, but I'm guessing you don't churn your own butter for the same reason you wouldn't want to do this: Go to the super market, pick out a bunch of items, average the cost of them and chart that average over time. There is no conspiracy here. Measuring inflation is very straight forward.
  - asdfadsfgfdda 7y ago
    Measuring inflation is not straight forward. How do you calculate inflation of completely new products, like smartphones? How do you measure inflation on a car that is superior in every attribute (fuel economy, safety, reliability) to a car of 10 years ago? How do you measure inflation on non-rival goods, like access to wikipedia?
  - cdiddy2 7y ago
    Yes there is conspiracy here. We have changed the way we measure inflation over the years. It completely changed how we count housing costs and technology. "if we calculated inflation today the same way we did during Carter’sadministration, CPI would be closer to 10% rather than the 1.5% calculated as of 12/31/10 by the government." https://www.cornerstonewm.com/downloads/measuring-inflation.pdf https://www.cornerstonewm.com/downloads/measuring-inflation....
cdiddy2 7y ago
I disagree. Inflation is only low because we don't measure it right. https://www.cornerstonewm.com/downloads/measuring-inflation.pdf https://www.cornerstonewm.com/downloads/measuring-inflation.... Inflation is much closer to whats listed here for many americans. https://chapwoodindex.com/ https://chapwoodindex.com/

snowwrestler 7y ago

You're acting like the government invented inflation; it didn't. Before central banks, inflation fluctuated freely in the economy, sometimes very high, sometimes into significant deflation. This volatility exacerbated other economic or financial fluctuations, causing a lot of problems. The goal of central banking is not to introduce or create inflation, but to manage it for greater certainty in long-term investment. A steady 2%/year inflation is a stable currency. If you think it's bad knowing that your dollar will devalue 2% every year, imagine trying to make plans not know whether it was going to drop or go up 7% next year--or anything in between.

Robotbeat 7y ago

Yes.