My problem with national currency is brain dead printing of fiat which causes the inflation to skyrocket. You can’t do this with crypto. That being said, I don’t want fiat to disappear, I want it to exist along side of crypto. So if the government fucks up fiat through irresponsible spending, people can switch to crypto which might act as an incentive for governments to NOT light money on fire.
inflation rate has been hidden in many ways. and soon enough america will spike(hyper inflate)
since the 1970's america has hidden wage raises by not offering people an increase in pay and instead hiding the extra wage as 'benefits' like company insurance and pensions, company cars, company childcare
only a few years ago the first signs appeared with wanting to increase the $7.50min wage to $15
people have started to smarten up and decline company pension/insurance due to no job security that they will still be in the same role in 40 years. and instead request the hidden 'value' just be paid out as an actual pay rise.
hense the min wage increases for the obvious crappy minimum paid roles where people dont treat it as a career.
once people start getting more true income. it then affects the inflation rate. although there is the same money overall. its just no longer hidden off the books. the fact that the bottomline income increases in real end-spending utility affects the inflation rate.
this has been something that has been bubbling for decades and is about to burst.
you might see how certain higher up people are trying too hard to push to avoid social healthcare via tax. you will see them trying to promote adding more 'employee benefits' and avoid any further minimum wage increases.
.. and all of this is to try not letting inflation go hyper.
in short even if government stopped 'printing money' the inflation going hyper can still happen due to what i just said.
imagine it. if you had $15.6k 5 years ago. and still on a minimum wage now, but getting $31.2k then retailers/realtors will double their prices due to 2x more income
higher ups have been trying hard to avoid you ever getting $32k on your payslip. and hide that $15k as 'benefits' pre pay-slip.
so just expect inflation to go hyper. even without the 'printing money' part. but then expect it to go hyper-hyper with the 'print money' part
The standard of living has also increased though. So if you consider the value of your dollar, it goes further than it did decades ago. Inflation, by definition, is essentially your currency losing it's value. However, look at the concept of purchasing power and detach it from inflation. What was the price you were paying for high speed internet a decade ago for example? What is the price now? Say you were making 50 thousand per year 10 years ago and you still make that same wage today. Inflation has cut against your total purchasing power technically, but you still can get a higher value for your money than you did 10 years ago due to technology, innovation, ect.
So yes, while wages have not always increased, the standard of living has.
