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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • People with large amounts of capital are focused on capital retention and not growth, so it is not short sighted for them to leave there capital in a deflationary currency. It is a low risk investment that will beat inflation by default. It is actually a great investment for them. Normally the rich would use treasury bonds that will beat inflation instead. Lowering the interest rate of treasury bonds forces the rich to risk their capital in the market where they could lose it. They reduce this risk by diversification of stocks, but it is still riskier than a treasury bond or deflationary currency which they would prefer.

    I bring up the unequal negotiating power because wages not keeping up with inflation is the core complaint you had. Regardless of inflation or deflation the business owners will try to reduce costs and will often screw over the working class. If the currency inflates than they don’t give you a large enough raise. If the currency deflates than they will have to reduce your wage and will find a way to justify it. In both situations the business owner will screw over the working class because of unequal negotiating power.

    Basically using deflation to fix worker compensation is like using a hammer on a screw. A screw looks like a nail, but a hammer is not the right tool for this problem. Unions are the drill that fix unequal negotiating power and the US has been undermining them for decades at this point. Inflation is a tool to force the rich to invest and risk their capital while deflation benefits the rich and their ability to maintain their status. If you want to imagine a society without capital then fine, but no such society has ever replaced currency which is just an abstraction for work done, but payment not yet redeemed. Gold, coupons, and dollars can all be currency. It is bad for a society if individuals can horde a currency and deflation makes it extremely easy to do so. As long as currency exists it is better to force the wealthy to risk their capital in the open market where they will lose some or all of it.


  • “The thigh was considered the source of posterity in the ancient world. Or, more properly, the “loins” or the testicles. The phrase “under the thigh” could be a euphemism for “on the loins.” There are two reasons why someone would take an oath in this manner: 1) Abraham had been promised a “seed” by God, and this covenantal blessing was passed on to his son and grandson. Abraham made his trusted servant swear “on the seed of Abraham” that he would find a wife for Isaac. 2) Abraham had received circumcision as the sign of the covenant (Genesis 17:10). Our custom is to swear on a Bible; the Hebrew custom was to swear on circumcision, the mark of God’s covenant. The idea of swearing on one’s loins is found in other cultures, as well. The English word testify is directly related to the word testicles.”

    https://www.gotquestions.org/hand-under-thigh.html


  • If I can expect my dollars to grow more safely in my bank account than in the market which has risk then I will leave it in the bank account. Non fiat currencies have uncontrolled inflation and deflation and caused many issues that became apparent several times in history.

    In regards to wages, if deflation became normal than businesses would just start reducing salaries. The true issue of wages is unequal negotiating power of the worker and employer. Instead of trying to fix this with currency value manipulation which does not work, you should look into unionization which has a far better results.


  • Unfortunately deflation decreases the supply of capital but does not increase the supply of resources like food and such and does not decrease the demand for them. So it would not increase the true buying power the working class has. It would just disincentivize those with capital from investing in industry that could increase supply of food and such and instead people with excess capital will just hold on to their money.

    The root of your concern is that the working classes buying power has been decreasing for decades which decreases their quality of life. The root cause of this issue is that supply has not been able to keep up with demand. The causes of this are large and varied depending on if we are talking about food, housing, or medicine etc. Inflation is one of the few tools the government has to cause industry to grow which will hopefully increase the supply of resources. Unfortunately there are many more factors in regards to supply and demand, and demand is increasing faster than supply.



  • Since you didn’t explain why, I will. If society has deflation all investments stop because people can hold their money and it will grow. If you have a small amount of inflation then those will large amounts of capital are forced to invest it or lose it over time. Inflation is basically a wealth tax for non investors. Obviously inflation that is too high acts much like a wealth tax that is too high. Inflation effects the rich and poor unless they invest their capital which the rich will often do better. Over all thoigh a small amount of inflation is good for an economy to force people to invest capital in something.


  • Yep, there are several studies researching this in various ways. An important thing to point out is that those two portions of the brains are inversely correlated without affecting other portions of the brain like the frontal cortex. So a person can be a good doctor or scientist and also be conservative. So conservatives have high fear responses to people who are different and lack empathy while left leaning people have less fear and increased empathy. Studies also show that brains develop to have an oversized amygdala when they have physical or emotional abuse as growing up or if they have severe lack of resources.