Hacker News Reader

> The monetary system works by debasing wages, a secret tax that keeps you working year after year

No. The monetary system works by encouraging capital to be invested in productive uses by debasing it yearly through inflation. If inflation was 0% or negative, the incentive to risk capital is much much lower.

The political system of Western countries favouring asset owners is separate.

View on HN

Inflation is not generally not necessary to encourage capital to be invested. Real returns, discounted for risk, encourage capital to be invested.

Monetary stability makes many forms of investment less risky! Low real interest rates (which often co-occur with inflationary episodes) discourage many forms of savings (which banks could use to invest.) The link between inflation and overall amounts of investment is not abundantly clear in the general case and it is an open problem that remains under study.

Whatever you need to tell yourself

Reply on news.ycombinator.com