An alternative reading is that the lowest classes are pretty stubbornly stuck in the 'scraping by' level of wealth, and inflation results from an increase in mo

An alternative reading is that the lowest classes are pretty stubbornly stuck in the 'scraping by' level of wealth, and inflation results from an increase in money supply, especially to the degree that the elevated money supply goes into circulation on routine spending. Our normal version of inflation is less crazy because it all goes into skyrocketing startup valuations and stock prices, trickles down from there into the real estate around centers of those activities, and so on in a loop with significant lag. Maybe a bit like taking the normally time-released drug of low interest rates, then crushing it and snorting it straight into the entire populace.