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Naval had an extremely pertinent tweet [1]: The road to socialism via inflation: • Print money, crash the reserve currency, destroy savers, and force them int
by nickpp 6y ago
Naval had an extremely pertinent tweet [1]:
The road to socialism via inflation:
• Print money, crash the reserve currency, destroy savers, and force them into inflated assets.
• Asset inflation leads to inequality. Demonize asset holders and tax the nominal gains, thereby confiscating the real value of the assets.
[1] https://twitter.com/naval/status/1359650086221930496?s=21 https://twitter.com/naval/status/1359650086221930496?s=21
- natenthe 6y agoNaval is a smart man. Couldn't agree with this more. We are nearing the end of the road to socialism via inflation.
- seppin 6y agoAll countries print money and discourage saving. Taxing capital gains at a fraction of the rate you tax labor ensures increasing inequality, and is not the source of "confiscating" or theft of wealth. Naval is a fortune cookie philosopher at best, and seems to repackage college libertarian ideas of protecting the wealthy from adequately funding the country they reside in.
- lefrenchy 6y agoThis entire take is predicated on the idea that the people in power have something to gain from doing this, since it requires the ruling class to do all of these things. It falls completely flat if you think about the logic beyond trying to make it fit your ideological narrative. Why would the ruling class (which his tweet presupposes is corrupt), who benefit from this status quo, purposefully destroy the systems that make them rich? It just doesn't make sense, the logic implies that a corrupt ruling class would purposefully destroy the systems that allow them to be corrupt in order to achieve "socialism" (which Naval clearly implies is somehow innately corrupt here). Why would they destroy what they benefit from on purpose? Ruling classes benefit from stability, if people are not starving and live generally decent/free lives they won't search above for answers or be inclined to upheaval. > destroy savers, and force them into inflated assets. I don't understand this part, isn't it a broad consensus in the US that savings should not be in cash but instead in a diverse set of assets and bonds? How does inflating assets destroy savers in this case? Every time I hear advice on saving in the US it's basically (take anything above emergency fund savings and invest it in ETFs/index funds/bonds)
- missedthecue 6y agoPrevious experiences of high inflation have turned societies conservative. See Reagan and Thatcher.
- seppin 6y agoBasic contradiction here https://twitter.com/TheStalwart/status/1359890366149853191 https://twitter.com/TheStalwart/status/1359890366149853191