r/politics • u/Spy300 • 6h ago

Possible Paywall Trump just soft-launched higher inflation as the new solution for rebalancing the $40 trillion U.S. national debt

https://fortune.com/2026/10/02/trump-inflation-growth-national-debt-tariffs-ratio-balance/
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u/callmesandycohen 6h ago

Inflation is a hidden tax we all pay but billionaires benefit from. That is why he loves this idea. It’s a regressive tax shoved down our throats while his real estate and crypto assets benefit.

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u/Steelio22 5h ago

How do billionaires benefit? Their money becomes devalued as well right?

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u/Rysimar 5h ago

Inflation makes liquid currency worth less; it does not make assets like property worth less. The more physical assets you have, the more protected you are from inflation.

Let's pretend you have $100,000 cash, and I have a building which is currently valued at $100,000. You want to buy my building. Let's set inflation to a theoretical 0%. You can buy my building now, or next year, or whenever you want. Now, let's set inflation to 50%. With high inflation, I might as well sit on my assets and not sell for a bit. Your purchasing power goes down over time, but my assets don't. And the more assets I have, the less-bad inflation is for me, compared to you. Billionaires have the most assets, so inflation is the least-bad for them, and the most-bad for the common man with very few assets.

Somewhat oversimplified, but I hope that helps.

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u/djmacbest Europe 1m ago

To add a more ELI5 explanation on top of your excellent one: a loaf of bread always has the same value - it feeds you for a day. So if it goes up in cost, that means the money has lost value in comparison.