Argument in favor of inflation: by stealing from everyone, or at least a large number of people, you by definition force them to work harder/longer/smarter if they wish to not lose ground in terms of standard of living. Thus, by cracking the whip of obscured fiscal slavery, more work gets performed.
I’m not certain this argument holds water. I suppose it works this way for some people but for others whose work output can not increase fast enough, it just brutalizes them.
Regardless of how someone feels about fiat/printing, printing is still redistribution of REAL ENERGY to those that don't/won't/can't work/produce in a FREE market.
This can be through Gov programs, welfare, regulations, etc... it really does not matter because ANY Gov program is by it's nature destructive to the 'greater good' (what it's intended to support).
Now, there CAN be a few things along the way funded by Government that should be ONE TIME events to ignite an industry. But be careful with that thinking. Why? Because they ALWAYS turn into longterm spending programs (think Interstate Hwy system that should have been privatized long ago).
My opinion is the destruction of central Gov programs FAR outweigh the benefits provided. Example: NASA was ruined by Government oversight and SpaceX swings in and does more in 10 years on a few percent of the spending as the entire history of NASA. There are 100s of examples.
BTW - for those that think we need welfare, talk to those that just got devastated from the Hurricane. We would be better off without Gov.
Cracking the whip of obscure fiscal slavery actually gets LESS done through lack of innovation and efficiency gains - which cause you to work even hard/longer on TOP of the inflation money printing creates.
I’d suggest inflation and government are technically separate things. But like separating them is like expect communism or free market capitalism to function ideally: it’ll never happen.
They are, technically. But because Government controls the money supply (they say Fed is independent but history shows that's complete nonsense), inflation is controlled by the Government.
There are some great books on the history of the Federal Reserve - too many to name. But "Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World" is a great start.
You say it will never happen, separating money/inflation from Government. But I think it is happening with #Bitcoin. Time will tell. But full on FOMO by Governments, Businesses, and Individuals has started. Every day someone new in all three categories emerge.
And now that BRICS is forming a multi-nation Bitcoin mining organization it's only a matter of time before all nations are battling for hash power (per the book Softwar by Jason Lowrey).
If we can get decentralized money, there are a lot of problems that get fixed since most wars have been funded by printed money, the first big benefit to humans is you can't print Bitcoin to fund wars.
I agree with Lowrey’s premise. Will have to read LoF. I believe separating store of value from means of exchange will be part of bitcoin future for a while…might even be advantageous this way but I think it’ll allow parallel fiat currency systems to die slowly rather than rapidly.
