• @xenomor@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    This is a terribly written headline and article. Might be AI slop. In short it says:

    Historically prices don’t go down unless there is an economic depression (for some reason that isn’t explained).

    There is little government policy can do to bring prices down (for reasons that aren’t explained).

    trump’s tariff and deportation policies will make prices much higher.

    • @TacoEvent@lemmy.zip
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      246 months ago

      What the average American doesn’t understand is that

      1. The government only has control over inflation when it comes to prices

      2. Controlling inflation only controls the RATE of rising prices

      Once prices are up, they don’t go down because prices always go up over time in a healthy economy.

      • @solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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        56 months ago

        prices always go up over time in a healthy economy

        LOL that sounds like a massively over simplified statement. would you care to elaborate?

        prices go up, period–that’s true, but calling an economy “healthy” because of that is like saying “healthy people eat food”

        i think the average american has very little understanding of what money actually is and why inflation is even a thing, rather, they just take it as a fact of life. like school shootings. like “yea, it’s not fun, but there’s nothing we can do” LOL

        • @mkwt@lemmy.world
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          76 months ago

          prices go up, period–that’s true

          According to Piketty, anyway, general inflation did not actually start until the industrial revolution. The price level was otherwise stable throughout history up to that point. It’s not just an incontrovertible fact of life, although it seems that way now.

    • @Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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      16 months ago

      Prices go down due to competition. So the government can’t lower prices, unless it destroys demand so the existing levels of competition cause lower prices. The government can lower demand by raising taxes, or if the fed raises interest rates. Eventually leading to enough unemployment to lower demand.

      In short, if the government makes prices go down, people tend to burn down the government before that happens. So it’s not really something they can do. Increasing prices is a whole different thing, inflation pisses people off in smaller doses, and keeps them in jobs, so they’re too busy to grab pitch forks and torches.

          • @theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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            36 months ago

            If an entire industry is bankrupt, it is no longer needed and has been supplanted by a better industry. And that usually ends in lower prices. Tractors are way, way cheaper than oxen.

            • @Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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              16 months ago

              The industry goes bankrupt because it can’t compete with a government producer that doesn’t pay taxes, leading to a government program running without competition, paid for by deficit funding.

              • @theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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                26 months ago

                If you’re a currency issuer then your government programs don’t run on any funding. They are allocated a maximum amount of new currency.

                But modern monetary theory aside, government competitors only eliminate shitty competition, not entire industries, unless those industries are themselves useless like the insurance industry.