At the moment it is very popular to point at political adversaries and say "Inflation is their fault."
I can only think of three ways inflation occur.
One of them that they've told us is bad for a long time is someone printing Counterfeit money. It is partially why after they go after them and make a big deal. Why? That counterfeit money enters the market and in doing so devalues all existing currency.
One way to look at it is like this. Imagine you had 100 pounds of gold so you printed $100,000 in bills to represent that 100 pounds of gold. In such a case your notes would be backed by something and each of them would be worth one thousandth of a pound of gold.
Along comes a counterfeiter and prints another $100,000 in bills. There are now $200,000 in circulation. There still only remains that 100 pounds of gold. This means each of your notes for $1 would be worth half what they were before. As the markets adjust for this your $1 can only buy half as much as it could. Things that previously were priced at $1 would suddenly be priced at $2.
This is inflation. In the case of counterfeiting the inflation would be caused by criminal activity.
The next way that inflation can happen is by a cartel or monopoly. They could artificially increase their prices and price gouge because they control a market. In recent times this has indeed been a claim the Biden administration has attempted to make for why gas prices are so high. It is important to note that this cartel and monopoly can only do this for the products they control. When it happens across a large swath of products and services in the economy it would not be due to this. It can be argued that the price of gas caused the other prices due to the increased cost to transport goods being passed along to the customers. Yes, this does happen. It was not the cause in our current circumstance that is just something that made the inflation worse. It was increasing across the board before that.
The third and most common way for inflation to occur is from activities of the government. If they print more money without increasing what that money represents (Gold in my example above) then they do exactly what the counterfeiters do and devalue the currency. Well the current money is backed by nothing other than the good will of other nations around the world that agreed that the U.S. dollar was the reserve currency. This is being destroyed as a case now and the reserve currency status is crumbling leaving it backed by nothing but the government's "because we said so."
This is exactly what the government did when it announced it was going to spend Trillions on COVID stimulus checks. Where do you think this money came from? They printed it out of thin air.
My wife and I received the check just like anyone else even though I didn't ask for it and didn't want it because I was very familiar with how inflation works. For a momentary feeling of joy at having several thousand dollars to spend towards whatever I want I would in a short time be increasing my bills and cost of living across the board for a lot longer. In the long run I'd be paying far more back than the government "gave me". In reality every time the government prints more money without backing it with something they are not giving you anything. They are stealing from you and hoping that you don't pay attention to the long term to understand this.
If they spread it out slowly enough they may even be able to blame it on someone else if the inflation hits after someone else takes control.
In this respect Trump was also talking about giving this money to people. It was not just a Biden thing. This was a mistake Trump made as well.
I knew the inflation was coming. I dumped the majority of mine into crypto. The inflation came. It actually hit a couple of months sooner than I was expecting. By then Biden was well ensconced and he did some things that are examples of ways government can increase inflation.
He cancelled actions the Trump administration had put into place that had the United States energy independent and even exporting energy. He also cancelled Trump administration things that were helping with employment and bringing back companies and jobs to the United States.
These are the things that largely lead to the oil costs, and by extension the cost of gasoline. That is firmly and squarely within the fault of the Biden administration.
As the cost to transport increases due to that an additional inflation eventually makes it into the market to compensate for that.
So we have the following so far:
- Printing "not so free" money + increased transport costs due to government actions = inflation
Yet this is not the only way that the government causes inflation. It is also not just a Biden or Trump thing. This is a government thing.
Another way that is common to cause inflation is increasing minimum wage. It is no longer a negotiation between the person wanting to hire someone and the person they want to hire on whether they are willing to work for that price or not. The government forces a minimum. This increase is invariably due to inflation caused by the government's actions prior to this. They have people excited to get paid more to make up for the struggling they are dealing with which was caused by the people that are saying they are helping by increasing the minimum wage.
Just like the "free" stimulus money the minimum wage increase will feel good for several months to anyone that happened to be below that minimum wage. Anyone that had managed to get above that even by a single cent will see no benefit.
However, in three to six months businesses often will have to increase their prices somewhere to make up for paying people more. This increase in prices trickles throughout the entire economy until eventually all prices increase. It is simply another driving force for inflation caused by government and sold to people as a brief feel good "win". It is NEVER a win. Well maybe if you get the increase, live better for a few months, and then you happen to die before inflation hits. Then you will be better off.
The truth of the matter is that when the inflation for minimum wage finally kicks in we as a nation of people are worse off than we were before. This is very easy to explain.
Say the wage was $5/hr (I started work in the $3/hr minimum wage range). I could buy candy for a penny at a convenience store a few years before that.
So we have a minimum wage at $5.00/hr. That is considered LOWER CLASS, or POOR.
We have a middle class maybe starting at the $7.50/hr range. This is our MIDDLE CLASS.
Then let's say the upper class starts at $100.00/hr during this time. This is our UPPER CLASS or the rich.
Let's say the population looks like this:
10,000,000 people in the LOWER CLASS.
20,000,000 people in the MIDDLE CLASS.
1,000,000 people in the UPPER CLASS.
These numbers are fake and only used to show you what I've seen.
The government comes along and bumps the minimum wage to $7.50/hr. That is the entry point for the middle class. That means the LOWER CLASS is now beginning at the middle class marker.
For a few months we have this...
30,000,000 people in LOWER/MIDDLE CLASS as the new marker for where the middle class is at needs to be found.
1,000,000 people in the UPPER CLASS.
Inflation kicks in and soon people making $7.50/hr are only able to buy the same amount of goods (or less) than they were able to purchase with $5/hr before the minimum wage increase. The new middle class has been found and the breakdown ends up looking something like this.
15,000,000 people in the LOWER CLASS
15,000,000 people in the MIDDLE CLASS
1,000,000 people in the UPPER CLASS
We now have fewer people in the middle class than before the minimum wage increase and the amount of people that are poor and struggling is larger. We are worse off than we were before the minimum wage increase. I call this erosion of the middle class from below.
What will happen? Politicians in the government will start propaganda saying we need to increase the minimum wage to $9/hr. Emotionally this will appeal to a lot of people if they are making less than $9/hr. They are once again conned into the same bait and switch.
It will repeat and the lower class will keep growing, as the middle class dwindles further and further.
Now you may wonder why the UPPER CLASS doesn't shrink? Well that usually is where the attorneys, politicians, and big executives reside. Part of the inflation is due to them making certain they can maintain their style of life or even improve it.
Ultimately the government loves to use emotionally charged and appealing statements to con citizens into willfully putting themselves into debt slavery.
Now we have another example of this...
The so-called "Inflation Reduction Act" which was rammed through using a reconciliation method because it enabled the Democrats to skirt things in the system that would have stopped it has a $740-$780 BILLION price tag (possibly larger than that after the fact)
It has a short and sweet title... it emotionally appeals to the people who are struggling due to inflation.
To many of them they would despise you if you voted against the inflation reduction act.
The problem is... It doesn't have anything that would remotely fight inflation. It will create massive inflation. Yet the title is all that matters to many people. They are being conned and stolen from again.
It does add 87,000 new IRS agents who are being armed for combat.
It does add climate change initiatives.
It does push woke agendas.
It also prints many billions of dollars without anything to back it.
Here is your recipe for inflation:
Counterfeiting + Cartel/Monopoly Action + Government Actions = Inflation
When your money is not backed by anything then the government is just a sanctioned counterfeiting agency.
The government cannot give you anything for FREE. They produce nothing of value to give them a way to pay for that.
They can only steal from others, and redistribute as they see fit.
Free healthcare? Who pays for the medicines and how? Do the doctors become slaves? If it is free then no one is paying them right? If they are getting paid how?
The government does not produce wealth. They take it ideally for purposes we all agree to that are mutually beneficial. Yet when they take it by force and then tell you that you are getting something for free it is a LIE.
Free education? Same thing...
Stop asking the government for handouts. It will always make things worse and you need to start paying attention to more than just how you feel good for a short period of time.
It is not just suicidal. It is homicidal because you are taking those of us that do not consent along with you on this path of madness.
Wake up to inflation! Stop listening to them pointing fingers and choosing to shift the blame!
Stop asking them to give you things for free. They can't. They can only pretend to while they steal from everyone... EVEN YOU!
Congrats, America: Our wise leader just signed away $739 BILLION to fight inflation 🎉