I am posting this on antiwork because inflation essentially eradicated any wage increase and career advancement i have made through my life. Honestly it is so demoralizing that it has led me to ask “whats the point of working or attempting to get raises.”
So lets say i am working and i make $15 an hour to start and through working at the company 5 years i am now at $20 an hour. Lets say that minimum wage is $15 for the sake of argument when i started. Over the past 5 years i have worked my way to about $5 above the minimum. Then say they just announced that the minimum wage will now be $20 an hour. Anyone in any corporation knows that i am not going to get a $5 raise and that i will be right back to just making the minimum wage. Meanwhile other new people just starting make the same at $20 and hour. So all that happened is i did what i was supposed to and started at the bottom to work my way up. Only to just not be working my way up at all and really just more and more people are living off the minimum wage.
Now here is where i bring in the title. Imagine a society that had no inflation. A dollar in 1900 is exactly the same value more or less in 2000. Now say people fought, protested and died for a living wage in 1900. The wage gave a single earner the ability to support themselves and a family if desired. If there was no inflation there would be no need for a minimum wage change. In 2000 people would have the same buying power as in 1900. If this was the case any wage increase i get in my life actually means i am improving my quality of life. Not just an illusion im making more but still living off minimum wage.
My question or thoughts i guess you could say is: is it possible for a society to have no inflation? I understand there are many many factors that contribute to inflation. But the biggest just seem to be price gouging and corporations needing to make more and more every year. That being said isn’t inflation just the rich and the ones that print the monies way of stealing your progress and career advancements?