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Inflation isn't a scalar, which is the main point of the article. The problem is that capturing all prices at all times in all locations is effectively impossib

Inflation isn't a scalar, which is the main point of the article. The problem is that capturing all prices at all times in all locations is effectively impossible, so it's generally oversimplified out of necessity. On the other hand, the value of a Dollar... The Morgan Silver Dollar from 1901 that I keep with me as a reminder, is worth about $17.50 in melt value.[1] The folks my age and younger generally don't appreciate the value of hard money.[2] It's almost always bought about 4 gallons of gasoline, or a meal for one. Say what you will about the inefficiency of a commodity backed currency, it won't shrink to zero value over time. [1] https://www.coinflation.com/coins/1878-1921-Silver-Morgan-Dollar-Value.html https://www.coinflation.com/coins/1878-1921-Silver-Morgan-Do... [2] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hardmoney.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hardmoney.asp

taway_6PplYu5 3y ago
You know, the Spanish once found a whole country made out of silver, they called it Argentina (argent == silver). And they brought a lot of this silver back to mainland Spain. While the value of silver coin did not shrink to zero during that time, it did shrink quite a bit, all across Europe. Historians like to write about 150 years of massive inflation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_revolution
- mikewarot 3y ago
  From that article Prices rose on average roughly sixfold over 150 years. This level of inflation amounts to 1.2% per year compounded Prices have risen far quicker than that since the Nixon shock. Perhaps the reason we haven't gotten upset is that most people don't remember the value of hard currency?