Unfortunately for most people, that's almost everything.
Inflation has its own issues, but as I see it they are mostly social class related.
No there aren't. To preserve real purchasing power monetary inflation FORCES you to speculate. Straightforward saving has been a loser's game for many decades now. This was not always true and there were long periods of price deflation and good interest rates before the establishment of the fed.
18% interest was a loser's game? http://www.hsh.com/indices/6mocd80s.html Even as recently as 1989, CD rates were over 10%. In 2000, they were over 7%, and in 2007, they were over 5%. http://www.hsh.com/indices/6mocd00s.html
Right now, America, and the world, are experiencing deflation. Yet, 6-month CD's are paying over 2% interest.
When all factors are considered, including understated CPI figures, I believe real returns to cash in the period in the 80s you point to were not even very good. Especially when you consider the opportunity cost of your five year CD and what played out in other asset classes during that five years.
What other zero-risk asset classes were we comparing against?
The only solution is to forbid money management as we know it.
There are a lot of assumptions, first and foremost that all investors are trying to maximize their returns with no regards to risk. I know many people who choose investments that are less risky and thus have less of an interest rate.
People always look at money management from the investment side (ie, what is my return) and don't think about what is actually going on... ie funding new ideas/projects, if you outlaw money management then drastically alter the way that people can get funding -- greatly increasing the misallocation of capital.
A better solution would be to tell people to research what they're investing in, if it doesn't look right or you can't understand it don't invest in it.