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Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by Bukhmanizer on Friday March 24, 2023 @03:02PM (#35293929)
I just want to point out that pretty much every natural economic condition is beneficial for the rich. The thing about money is it’s very flexible. You can hoard it in deflationary cycles, spend it on assets in inflationary cycles, grow it in economically good times and buy cheap property and goods in economically bad times.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by ak_111 on Friday March 24, 2023 @03:30PM (#35294280)
Thing is inflation isn't 'natural' economic condition, it is mostly a product of economic policy according to a very respected school of thought (monetarism). In other words it is as natural as slapping a wealth tax of 80% on the super wealthy, which is definitely not beneficial for the rich.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by astrange on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:13PM (#35294807)
Wealth taxes, unlike most taxes, would be inflationary because they force selling assets and therefore increase monetary velocity.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by munk-a on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:16PM (#35294848)
Both income and point of sale taxes definitely feed into inflation so I'm not certain why you're trying to draw a distinction between those taxes on productive money and taxes on accumulated wealth (generally unproductive money).
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by astrange on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:21PM (#35294906)
No, those are deflationary. They reduce transactions (because you want to spend less) and they reduce the money supply. Wealth taxes reduce the money supply as well, but they increase transactions because you have to buy the currency to pay them in by selling your assets.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by ChuckNorris89 on Friday March 24, 2023 @03:32PM (#35294307)
Basically, when times are bad, the rich are solvent enough to afford to just "buy the dip", and sit on it to appreciate during the good times when rates will be low enough again, then rinse and repeat between the boom-bust cycles to increase wealth.

Inflation helps them as their assets are inflation-proof and it helps wipe out their debd.

Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by Silverback_VII on Friday March 24, 2023 @03:22PM (#35294166)
It's like Monopoly, at some point there is just nothing you can do. The resets are probably the collapses of civilizations.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by UniverseHacker on Friday March 24, 2023 @03:36PM (#35294355)
Money isn’t fundamentally a zero sum game like it seems on the surface… rich peoples wealth is invested, and gets used by less wealthy people to also create value - they might say draw a salary supported by a business loan, or mortgage a house.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by munk-a on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:21PM (#35294898)
You're quite correct - but poor people's money also does that. Rich people's wealth is generally less productive in being accessible for loans since it's generally tied up in speculative investments... compared to less well off folks that are more likely to have a pile of cash in a bank account.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by mycodebreaks on Friday March 24, 2023 @03:31PM (#35294291)
good point, assets aren't infinite.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by stuaxo on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:01PM (#35294655)
That is exactly the point "the landlords game" - the original monopoly was made to demonstrate.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by G3rn0ti on Friday March 24, 2023 @03:42PM (#35294409)
Correct. Being rich is always better than being poor no matter what the economic context is. Even Marxists should be able to understand that.

Although, to be precise: Inflation hurts everybody maintaining their savings in some form of cash. Rich people with a large pile of cash also have a lot to lose.

In the medium term current retail prices will be offset by wage increases as long as inflation does not become a galloping inflation.

Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by beepbooptheory on Friday March 24, 2023 @03:53PM (#35294541)
In fact, Marxists understand this point most of all. Which is why the moral impetus is to remove the possibility of being individually rich, in order to bring a more beautiful wealth to all.

Individual "wealth" is so boring and flat and uninspired. Just Scrooge McDucks everywhere. Doesn't it feel like an archaic concept at this point? Such a narrow instantiation of humanity, can't die soon enough.

Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by goostavos on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:34PM (#35295058)
I dunno. I'm kinda enjoying the billionaire space race. Some of those McDucks moved us off of 60+ year old launch systems for funzies.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by mech7654 on Friday March 24, 2023 @03:56PM (#35294577)
It sure is boring. We probably should eliminate all boring things from the world.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by beepbooptheory on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:01PM (#35294654)
Just this particular one is sufficient to me. But I'll support you!
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by etothepii on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:35PM (#35295063)
Who gets to decide what is "boring?"
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by stuaxo on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:00PM (#35294633)
There is nothing natural about any system. The system is organised as it is entirely by choice - though only a small minority get to choose how it is.

The system benefits those who get choose how it operates.

Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by lo_zamoyski on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:45PM (#35295197)
That's a bit extreme and relativistic.

If by "natural" we mean somehow rooted in or consequent to human nature, then economies are very much natural. Human beings are social animals, and within this social context, we exchange goods and services for mutual benefit and for the sake of the common good. Economies become unnatural to the degree that they are detrimental and depart from human nature, in which case they cease to be economies to the degree that they fail. The details of economic practices are subject to a great deal of prudential judgement, and regulation is but a prudential determination of general principles of human nature to specific circumstances.

Economies don't live in some abstract realm, of course. They are the sum of human exchanges which themselves are a product of individual choices themselves influenced by culture and law. When the law is used by those in power to exploit everyone else for their own (myopically understood) benefit, we call that a tyranny.

But to be able to judge any of this requires a clear grasp of what is just. Recall that justice consists in rendering onto others what is their due.

Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by seizethecheese on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:17PM (#35294852)
The gap between living standard of poor and rich is much smaller than a few hundred years ago. What you claim cannot possibly be correct.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by miohtama on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:27PM (#35294964)
The gap was lowest in 70s, has widened since then and is now as wide in 40s

https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk

Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by pastor_bob on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:38PM (#35295104)
A few hundred years ago, the vast majority of people lived under Autocracies.

The elite could simply dictate how societies would operate.

Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by miohtama on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:25PM (#35294944)
Many, but not all: an example of unfavorable economic conditions for rich is real estate bubble burst (2008). Rich own real estate disproportionally to low and middle class.
Re:UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate... by chr-s on Friday March 24, 2023 @04:47PM (#35295234)
How many rich people were foreclosed upon? The poor always feel the real brunt of any unfavorable economic conditions. The rich will stay rich and likely become even richer because they can take advantage of the recovery.