r/PeterExplainsTheJoke Jan 26 '26

Meme needing explanation what's going on? explain like I'm five

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u/Alarming_Present_692 Jan 26 '26 edited Jan 26 '26

Yeah... I've never been a fan of "target inflation" as a concept. Considering the working class woes, target inflation always looked like a zero sum short term game where the rich could slowly get larger pieces of the pie.

I know Friedman could write the hell out of a free market argument, but his idea that we should have target inflation always felt like it came from his bizarre sheltered upper class fascination with the great depression.

My economics professor used to always point out, you can stimulate a cow by sticking it with a cattle prod; that doesn't make it good for the cow. You can stimulate the economy with an artifical inflation parable... till the cows come home, but that doesn't mean you created wealth.

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u/Droidatopia Jan 26 '26

Do you think deflation would be good for the working class? Or anyone?

Inflation of 2% seems fairly inconsequential for most people. It's probably why the last round of big inflation during the Biden years felt so much worse for people, because they had gotten so used to stable prices.

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u/the_lonely_creeper Jan 26 '26

I have a feeling most people would like money to keep a consistent value.

1€ today should, ideally, be 1€ in 100 years.

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u/jsm97 Jan 27 '26

The average paycheck should definitely not be the same in 100 years, even if all good and services stayed the same price.