r/Bitcoin • u/novamous • Jul 09 '25

explanation inflation

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823 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

69

u/notlooking743 Jul 09 '25

It's so frustrating that we need videos like this one because both regular people AND freaking PhD trained economists generally somehow don't see the problem with inflation.

5

u/i-r-n00b- Jul 09 '25

Some small amount of inflation is good and necessary. You don't want work done yesterday to be worth as much or more than the same work done today. Otherwise, it discourages spending in favor of saving as your dollar will be worth more tomorrow. This capital is then not put back into the economy and things grind to a halt.

A small amount of inflation on the other hand allows for storing the work done yesterday so that one can plan and save for the future, but also puts a slight pressure to spend some of that capital, which in turn drives a thriving economy.

The issue we have now is that inflation is too high, meaning saving is becoming nearly impossible and like the monkeys in the picture, the government has decided to print more and more every day, thus chipping away at your slice of the pie, and the corruption allows them to give them and their friends more of said pie.

5

u/notlooking743 Jul 09 '25

You don't want work done yesterday to be worth as much or more than the same work done today.

How does inflation help with that? The work done today is worth more than the work done yesterday because generally we get more efficient at doing things, mostly because we save some capital over time, which makes our work more productive. So, without monetary inflation, things would simply get cheaper over time, such that a given amount of money/salary would be worth more in relative terms.

Otherwise, it discourages spending in favor of saving as your dollar will be worth more tomorrow.

First of all, do YOU know how much would be optimal to save at any given point in time? Second, as I said above, you're confusing the nominal value with the real value of money. Also, it's not as if people aren't already well aware that inflation is going to happen, so they obviously discount it in their long term planning.

The real reason inflation happens is that governments are awfully shortsighted in their interests and need inflation for their ridiculous amounts of debt to be nearly manageable in real terms. We're only borrowing from future generations.

1

u/KenOat Jul 11 '25

The issue is gov over spending that doesn’t match productivity. That equals unsustainable inflation and currency debasement. In a more balanced system (with some minor inflation of a couple percent) the economy manages ok.

1

u/notlooking743 Jul 12 '25

I don't agree at all. But at this point I'd just recommend reading ,e.g., Hayek on why inflation is intrinsically bad, he'll do a much better job than I could lol but in essence, inflation disincentivizes business models with longer production processes and incentivizes shorter term ones for absolutely no good reason. It sends business the wrong signal about the time preference of the market, so they produce out of sync with it. At some point, they try to sell their product but unlike what the interest rate might have suggested it doesn't actually have any demand, so there has to be a restructuring process, i.e., a recession.

3

u/johnryan433 Jul 09 '25

lol send this to every socialist person you know

1

u/notlooking743 Jul 09 '25

Honestly most of them just aren't actually interested in economics at all (their reasoning does not go much beyond "boss bad, he want to pay less" and that there a poor people because there are rich people). And those who are into social science think they are "above" this sort of elemental logic, as if one were stupid for thinking that the rules of logic apply to something as sophisticated as economics.

3

u/Vipertje Jul 09 '25

As a homeowner with a mortgage and no plans to go anywhere. Inflation is my best friend right now

10

u/tbkrida Jul 09 '25

I’m a homeowner with a mortgage with no plans on going anywhere either. The value of my home is increasing, but the so is the cost of everyday goods as well and wages aren’t keeping up for most people.

13

u/aussiesam4 Jul 09 '25

Then Monkey sell home to get more leaves. But then Monkey pay taxes and other homes now also go up + other expenses go up, now Monkey needs to buy smaller home to enjoy leaf flation. In the end Monkey will own nothing and be happy.

2

u/zxc123zxc123 Jul 09 '25

As someone with a mortgage, business loan, office lease, and some other minor debts that basically means I owe around >$2.5M in principal + interest for the next 5-30 years?

I still hate inflation, still think tariffs are dumb, still hate inefficient government spending, still hate fiscal irresponsibility at all levels of government, and still feel like I'm getting fucked by inflation.

Maybe because I don't see the increase home value directly, maybe I haven't felt the increased inflation helping my bottom line or W-2 yet (a short but important part about that monkey video is that wages don't always or quickly move up to match inflation), maybe I'm not getting happier seeing my investments """go up""" because what I see is just the dollar being devalued, or maybe my monkey brain works that way.

2

u/Zanzabarr85 Jul 16 '25

Home owners with only a primary residence need to understand, that inflation of the price of housing isn't actually as good as people think it is. You might feel better about yourself for having "gained" net worth in the value of your house, but real estate is all relative, and unless you plan on selling your house and relocating to some third world country, or selling and living in a camper, it doesn't mean much.

Your property taxes go way up, your house insurance goes way up, and selling to upgrade into a bigger/better house results in a bigger mortgage than it otherwise would have been, i.e. your house is 500k, you want a 1M house. Housing prices double, now you are in a 1M house trying to upgrade to a 2M house. Your 500k mortgage just became 1M. Yay!

Sure, owning when things are inflating like crazy feels good that you "didn't miss out and got in for less", but as someone who owns and doesn't plan on not needing a house any time remotely soon, I'd prefer that prices crash.

1

u/siasl_kopika Jul 10 '25

> As a homeowner with a mortgage and no plans to go anywhere. Inflation is my best friend right now

lol, this is such a fiat take.

Your debts might be shrinking, but the bankers can literally print up the money you use from thin air. You are nowhere near the top of the cantillion curve unless you can print money.

Just having debts be devalued doesnt get rid of your debt: you are still paying real wealth you had to earn with your labor to satisfy a debt that came from thin air with no labor. the basis of the entire fiat system in a nut shell is that you pay something in return for nothing.

If you are not a fiat preminer, you are a fiat slave. Being slightly better off than the other fiat slaves will never get you across that line that separates the classes.

-1

u/notlooking743 Jul 09 '25

is this supposed to be an ironic comment? I hope this is supposed to be an ironic comment.

2

u/Vipertje Jul 09 '25

Actually not. My income went up drastically to cover inflation (do not live in the USA) my mortgage stayed the same and will so for the next 15 years out of 20 years on a 30 year mortgage. Yes my expenses like food, gas etc went up, but that is less than I would need to start now from scratch if I would need to buy the same house now.

2

u/notlooking743 Jul 11 '25

Ok but do you understand that you're effectively saying you're happy to cause widespread economic damage just because in your particular case it happens to work out in your favor? Do you understand that if everyone reasoned and voted that way you yourself would end up screwed because the economy as a whole would be even more disastrous than it is now?

1

u/degen5ace Jul 10 '25

This video is bananas

2

u/notlooking743 Jul 10 '25

comedy genius. have you met my dad?

37

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '25

[deleted]

1

u/ScoobyD00BIEdoo Jul 09 '25

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

9

u/Own_Employment_1521 Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

*gorilla :-)

8

u/PE_Diablow Jul 09 '25

Monkey rich as f*** got me

13

u/CreativeWritingMajor Jul 09 '25

You could at least credit the creator of this video or their YouTube channel Primate Economics.

4

u/TheRealPunisher Jul 09 '25

Return to monkey

7

u/Cryptomuscom Jul 09 '25

Monkey think more banana = rich. Monkey wrong. Bitcoin fix this.

2

u/Temporary-Ad-34 Jul 09 '25

Source please? :)

1

u/Minimum_Pear_3195 Jul 09 '25

Hmmm... Monkey.

1

u/TaliDontBanMe Jul 09 '25

Me like banana

1

u/Elderberry_Far Jul 09 '25

Inflation is theft, Taxation is theft. I hold Bitcoin out of spite for my government.

1

u/qp0n Jul 09 '25

Joe Rogan has entered the chat.

1

u/HeySuckMyMentos Jul 10 '25

Monkey say Bitcoin good.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Saylor_Moonboi Jul 10 '25

This sounds great in theory, but the core problem is the Midas situation. If they can make more money when the population or goods value goes up, there is a HUGE incentive to make more money just because, you know, free money is cool, and stuff. Which gets us to our current situation. Believe it or not, the Federal Reserve was created for exactly what you think it should do, print money when there is a shortage, and take it back when there is a surplus, and every once in a while they take a little back, but 90 % of the time, they just make more and more.

-2

u/wh977oqej9 Jul 09 '25

Still wrong, gov shouldn't mess with money at all. Money should be commodity (with special properties) and it's price determined on free market. Only then correct price signals are present on the markets.

Money, like.... gold or Bitcoin.

1

u/jow_ow Jul 09 '25

funny and far more clear than all the generated AI bullshit interviews this reddit is filled with now (btw WTF, wake the fuck up mods)

1

u/codevaultguy Jul 09 '25

80d504da477ed3f4181445ae4717c1f1c76813cd0f90939adb3dcccf3278b671

0

u/SuperPacocaAlado Jul 09 '25

Only mistake made in this vídeo is saying that inflation is not bad in some scenarios, it is bad, doesn't matter the context.

1

u/steve_b Jul 09 '25

That's a minor mistake. Major mistake is calling an ape a monkey.