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Inflation has two definitions. There's monetary inflation and price inflation. The former refers to an expansion in the money supply. If you fund any social pro

by nwah1 6y ago

Inflation has two definitions. There's monetary inflation and price inflation. The former refers to an expansion in the money supply. If you fund any social program purely out of tax revenue, then there is no monetary expansion. But monetary inflation itself doesn't necessarily lead to price inflation. If you have a quickly growing population, but a money supply that is growing slowly, then you would need faster monetary expansion simply to maintain price stability. Price inflation is what people really care about. But it is also not just one uniform thing. We know that healthcare, land rent, and education are what have been rising in the US over many decades, while things like food, clothing, electronics, energy, and raw materials have been pretty flat or even decreasing in price. The distinguishing factor is that the former tend to have both inelastic supply and inelastic demand, while the latter category has elasticity in both. What this means is that the former category is characterized by economic rents more than supply costs. Easy monetary policies may inflate bubbles in these targeted areas, but the fact that it is so localized gives a clue as to the real cause: economic rent-seeking and landlordism. Pre-capitalistic and parasitical sorts of business models, often relying on the government to create artificial scarcity. If this stuff happens in essential industries then it also means the demand is inelastic, and we're forced to eat the higher prices, which are whatever they think the consumers can afford. All of this means that without tackling the economic rents, such as by raising tax revenues that target them, then we cannot solve this problem. And if people can afford more, the economic rents will increase. For instance, via a basic income that is not funded out of economic rent. But if it were funded out of rent, then it would be fine. Taxes that are placed upon economic rents have a curious property where they cannot be passed onto anyone else. Zero deadweight loss.

steve76 6y ago
Here are some dirty secrets: Healthcare is a giant game of lawsuit musical chairs. A nurse reads a disclaimer to a doctor. A doctor looks at you for a second or two and shrugs "yeah. he'll live." When you're weak, you're still the same, but volatile and sensitive. Eventually you lower your blood pressure for good. Some nun or ex con on work release administers the drug or does the critical procedure. Go ahead and sue the people with a vow of poverty. See how that works out. Education, the cost is all research. That's medicine too. See above. A small part is military research. The research they do is frightening and really needs to be kept under wraps with decades of vetting and security clearance. For example, the Manhattan Project, almost a hundred years old. Imagine what they are doing today. The land ownership that matters, the people who own thousands of homes and large city districts, will need a war to take away their wealth. In fact, I bet wars are started, hundreds of thousands of people churned, because of one minor dispute between very powerful people, and if you trace minor land ownership to the top it involves foreign affairs. People in the world seek poverty. A ton. Very wealthy cultures in Asia and Africa think it's good to be poor, that you're stupid to avoid getting sick or dirty or beaten to death, like junking a car with brand new tires for dirty rubies and diamonds that not long ago were just dirt. I would say there are more ascetics than the developed + seeking development. Capitalism is not parasitic. It's brutal and violent. Instead of digging trenches and shooting cannons at each other, we'll settle our differences over poker or keno or baccarat. If that's not enough, we'll bet on baseball or horses. Still have a problem? Let's fist fight in the street, then we'll go to knives, then guns, and if that's not enough, we always have our tried and true time tested civil wars. Sounds crazy but it's exactly how a lot of fortunes were made. Competitive free markets admit reality and provide an alternative which caps the violence. If you live where 9' of snow falls in one hour, nothing will bring demand there. It's not inelastic, it's immovable. It's also a mistake to conflate low standard of living to poverty. Do you really want to make gasoline $10 a gallon around the Great Lakes, you know, the people who invented the modern industry, because it works in San Fran? People there are highly intelligent. You would be waking up a sleeping monster because someone you feel sorry for can't stop shooting elephant tranquilizer. Good god. I wouldn't want to think what they would do. Lawsuits, wars, security clearances, social trends, all that is government to me. If nature provides it, but you have to involve yourself with centuries of warfare among a billion people, it's scarce. I don't want other people's problems. In a hundred years $30 trillion will be nothing. If there's something to go broke on, it's curing disease, not burning cities or settling frontiers or telling everyone how great you are. Survive. Just don't loose or mess up. Probably the best way to create wealth is to find a way to monetize dying in your 90s. Medical research and a data platform, and incentive people doing medical procedure on themselves, like the emerging specialized genetic communities.

by nwah1 6y ago

steve76 6y ago

Here are some dirty secrets: Healthcare is a giant game of lawsuit musical chairs. A nurse reads a disclaimer to a doctor. A doctor looks at you for a second or two and shrugs "yeah. he'll live." When you're weak, you're still the same, but volatile and sensitive. Eventually you lower your blood pressure for good. Some nun or ex con on work release administers the drug or does the critical procedure. Go ahead and sue the people with a vow of poverty. See how that works out. Education, the cost is all research. That's medicine too. See above. A small part is military research. The research they do is frightening and really needs to be kept under wraps with decades of vetting and security clearance. For example, the Manhattan Project, almost a hundred years old. Imagine what they are doing today. The land ownership that matters, the people who own thousands of homes and large city districts, will need a war to take away their wealth. In fact, I bet wars are started, hundreds of thousands of people churned, because of one minor dispute between very powerful people, and if you trace minor land ownership to the top it involves foreign affairs. People in the world seek poverty. A ton. Very wealthy cultures in Asia and Africa think it's good to be poor, that you're stupid to avoid getting sick or dirty or beaten to death, like junking a car with brand new tires for dirty rubies and diamonds that not long ago were just dirt. I would say there are more ascetics than the developed + seeking development. Capitalism is not parasitic. It's brutal and violent. Instead of digging trenches and shooting cannons at each other, we'll settle our differences over poker or keno or baccarat. If that's not enough, we'll bet on baseball or horses. Still have a problem? Let's fist fight in the street, then we'll go to knives, then guns, and if that's not enough, we always have our tried and true time tested civil wars. Sounds crazy but it's exactly how a lot of fortunes were made. Competitive free markets admit reality and provide an alternative which caps the violence. If you live where 9' of snow falls in one hour, nothing will bring demand there. It's not inelastic, it's immovable. It's also a mistake to conflate low standard of living to poverty. Do you really want to make gasoline $10 a gallon around the Great Lakes, you know, the people who invented the modern industry, because it works in San Fran? People there are highly intelligent. You would be waking up a sleeping monster because someone you feel sorry for can't stop shooting elephant tranquilizer. Good god. I wouldn't want to think what they would do. Lawsuits, wars, security clearances, social trends, all that is government to me. If nature provides it, but you have to involve yourself with centuries of warfare among a billion people, it's scarce. I don't want other people's problems. In a hundred years $30 trillion will be nothing. If there's something to go broke on, it's curing disease, not burning cities or settling frontiers or telling everyone how great you are. Survive. Just don't loose or mess up. Probably the best way to create wealth is to find a way to monetize dying in your 90s. Medical research and a data platform, and incentive people doing medical procedure on themselves, like the emerging specialized genetic communities.