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Understanding Inflation.

Finally, a thread about raising the minimum wage mentions inflation. Those on one side claim that raising the minimum wage causes inflation. Those on the other side says the minimum wage should be raised because of inflation. It shows that few people understand (a) the definition of inflation and (b) the cause of it.
(Don't feel so bad. In the late Seventies, Gerald Ford had a campaign called WIN (Whip Inflation Now), as if the masses had anything to do with it. There were public service ads on television accusing people who want to spend money as being "PIGGY" and causing inflation. And these misleading campaigns were carried on by government and mass media, so don't necessarily blame yourself for not understanding this problem.)

Inflation is basically TOO MANY DOLLARS CHASING TOO FEW GOODS. If you have to tattoo that definition in your brain, then do it.

It helps to take a few macroeconomics courses in college to fully understand the economy. In this country (and I only mention America because I don't give a rat's ass about other countries) there is such a thing as the MONEY SUPPLY. There's a certain amount of dollars out there and the federal government (usually the Treasury Department) keeps track of that amount.

It is tied to output. If the government decides to flood the market with more and more dollars without output increasing, you get INFLATION.

How did UNELECTED JOE create the RECORD HIGHEST INFLATION IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICA, when he inherited an expanding economy with record LOW inflation? Very simple. He flooded the economy with a lot of unnecessary dollars, in the form of those "stimulus checks."

That's what did it.

Need a reference to follow this? (I don't expect blue state liberals to grasp this because their public schools barely prepare them for the fourth grade in a red state.)
https://www.heritage.org/budget-and-spending/heritage-explains/the-real-story-behind-inflation

What do you know about inflation? Milton Friedman famously said: “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon, in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.” Of course, we all know the driver of the quantity of money is government spending priorities, and recently the government has been spending a lot. So what does that mean for the American people?
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I've read it online so blame it on the writers of such articles that claim when minimum goes up so does everything else especially food gas and rent.
Reason10 · 70-79, M
@Spoiledbrat The ONLY thing that causes inflation is an increase in the money supply without an increase in output.
@Reason10 Are you calling me a liar?
Reason10 · 70-79, M
@Spoiledbrat A liar is someone who deliberately tells a falsehood. I don't think you are doing that. All I did was present the facts. It's not uncommon for people like you to think the things you think, based on how much disinformation from the media and the DemoNazi party. The reason I know the true cause of inflation ( probably because I'm so damned old) is in the early 90s I became an Ayn Rand libertarian who was obsessed with all things Libertarian. I did economics research that would give college professors an Excedrin headache. Later one when I went back to college for a business degree, all that study allowed me to sail through the economics courses, where I got the highest grades in each class.
I'm no longer a Libertarian because the party of Ron Paul and Andre Marrou quickly turned into a Democrat Lite group of idiots, who were for open borders and emptying prisons. They all somehow believe ALL the ills of the world would be solved if America would just legalize all drugs.

Politicians celebrate when people like you try to define inflation they way you did. It doesn't mean you're not intelligent. A person can be very intelligent and wrong at the same time.
Try not to take this stuff personally.
I'm sure that's true. But raising minimum wage can also increase cost of living which makes prices go up. I've read. @Reason10
Reason10 · 70-79, M
@Spoiledbrat Thing is, (and I remember my college Econ prof almost swatting me when I said the same thing) inflation is not just about the cost of living going up. That's a symptom of inflation. Again, inflation is a monetary issue.

A long time ago, when I was a kid and didn't know any better, and did a lot of traveling, the one constant out there was the fact that the cost of living in heavily unionized states was higher than others. Of course it wasn't just union wages driving up the cost. These states also had higher taxes. Businesses had to pass those costs along to somebody.

The original spikes in the cost of oil in the early Seventies was NOT due to any oil shortage, (even as politicians from BOTH parties continue to LIE to us about it.) That problem was a monetary problem. Nixon took the world off the Bretton Woods gold standard, despite OPEC warning him not to. It's understandable. Oil is traded only on American dollars, (which is the world's reserve currency.)

I once heard someone suggest a little inflation is a sign of a healthy economy. That person obviously did not know what inflation is. I can't blame that person. Even the liberal FORD administration got it all wrong about inflation.
I got a C in economics but I was just saying that businesses often pass the higher wage cost onto consumers. That's all. @Reason10
Reason10 · 70-79, M
@Spoiledbrat I know some business owners who would give a left testicle to be able to do such a thing. In a competitive economy, it's pretty difficult to just pass high wage increase prices on to consumers. (I'm not saying it doesn't exist entirely.) I've worked for enough of them to know that there are other avenues: Laying off the dumbest at the bottom; requiring a degree for even the most mundane jobs; requiring more work out of employees who survived the firing purge; not replacing employees who quit. Stuff like that. Accountants (at least in small businesses) are under the gun to find ways to cut costs without hurting a business's public image, price wise.
@Reason10 But prices still go up on living expenses. I've read it myself.
Chipotle just said in a statement that because of the minimum hike on fast food in California they are going to raise their prices considerably. @Reason10