Comment by tachyonbeam | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tachyonbeam | Hacker News Reader

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From what I've seen, there are a lot of people in tech circles expressing anti-capitalist sentiment. However, very few of these people know or care how the economy works. This is very unfortunate, because I think it's useful to try and understand how the system works if you want to have any hope of improving it. Or at least, if you understand how things are trending, you might be able to better prepare and protect yourself and your friends/family.

The average person doesn't understand what inflation is, why it happens, how it affects them and how the government uses inflation to reduce the significance of its debt. The average person also tends to believe government inflation numbers which, IMO, are manipulated and do not represent what is actually happening in the world. For instance, home prices (and thus rents) are rapidly increasing, and housing costs, for most people, are the biggest expense they have to think about, accounting for sometimes more than 50% of their take home pay.

> From what I've seen, there are a lot of left-wing people in tech circles expressing an opposition to capitalism. However, very few of these people know or care how the economy works.

From what I've seen, there are a lot of right-wing people in tech circles expressing a support for capitalism. However, very few of these people know or care how the economy works.

(A particular subgroup understands finance/trading pretty well, and mistakes understanding weather for understanding climate.)

> From what I've seen, there are a lot of right-wing people in tech circles expressing a support for capitalism. However, very few of these people know or care how the economy works.

Fair point. Most people don't know or care how the economy works, left or right. My main point was: it's to your advantage to know how the system works, and it's maybe even more important to understand how it works if you hope to change it.

If you don't understand what is inflation and its impact, or basic economics, then politicians can take advantage of your lack of knowledge, in the same way a shady car mechanic can take advantage of uninformed customers. They might pretend that certain policies will help lower-income people when what they are doing is most beneficial to the ultra-rich.

> They might pretend that certain policies will help lower-income people when what they are doing is most beneficial to the ultra-rich.

Sure, like, for instance, they might pretend that reducing fiscal stimulus that both redistributes wealth downward and fuels inflation (but does the former more than the latter) helps the lower-income by reducing inflation when it really lowers their real post-transfer income while raising it for those in the higher income classes that benefit less or not at all from the transfer but are still effected by price levels.

> (A particular subgroup understands finance/trading pretty well, and mistakes understanding weather for understanding climate.)

now this is just downright seductive. bravo

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