The American dream espouses the idea that no matter who you are, if you work hard enough or are innovative enough you can achieve almost anything you desire. Ever-higher-paying jobs are central to this construct. We expect to start our careers, earn more over time, and hopefully at the same time outrun rising prices. If we are lucky enough to have bought assets, the rising prices of those assets, because of inflation, creates longer-term wealth. If we leverage those assets by adding debt, our return is even greater because the asset increases in value while the dollars that we pay back in debt are priced in today’s dollars—and with inflation, and growth in our incomes due to the inflation, we pay back the debt tomorrow in dollars that are worth less.

-Jeff Booth , "The Price of Tomorrow"