"Shrinkflation" is coming back as a narrative

[Wind_FURY]

Because the economic situation in some regions of the world continue to worsen, politicians are using newly invented economic terms like "Shrinkflation" to to blame the companies as being too greedy, and to "rationalize" the effects of printing too much money and having too much debt - that the government may never repay.

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge. But it should also make us more distrustful of the policy makers because they know there's no "Shrinkflation", only inflation and the negative effects of money-printing.

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[Natsuu]

So they want to blame companies for being greedy while they keep printing more money and piling up debt. Yeah we should be cool with extra money in circulation because it could boost Bitcoin's value but at the same time, there's a side-eye at policymakers who might not be upfront about the real deal like no fancy terms, just plain old inflation and the downsides of printing too much money. It's not our fault to have these trust issues with government

[Lucius]

Because the economic situation in some regions of the world continue to worsen, politicians are using newly invented economic terms like "Shrinkflation" to to blame the companies as being too greedy, and to "rationalize" the effects of printing too much money and having too much debt - that the government may never repay.

Companies are greedy, or at least most of them, and you shouldn't doubt that. The fact is that many manufacturers of food, drinks and other products have reduced the weight of the products in their packages, and in addition have raised their prices without communicating this to their customers. That speaks volumes about how much they respect those they actually live off of. However, I must admit that I found one exception, because I read a notice on one package that said something like "the quantity of this product has decreased by xx% since 202x".

Politicians are always looking for excuses for their incompetence, so even in this case it is not strange that they try to blame the poor standard of their citizens on companies that just want to make as much profit as possible. Maybe they should have thought of that when they almost completely stopped the world economy due to a virus that had a death rate of about 1% or even less, and that among people over 60 years old.

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge. But it should also make us more distrustful of the policy makers because they know there's no "Shrinkflation", only inflation and the negative effects of money-printing.

I would not agree that we should look forward to something that will only harm the general population in the long term, because the debts created by today's politicians will be paid by the children of our grandchildren, and that is not the inheritance we should leave them. Bitcoin will succeed even without crazy financial measures, and with all that, I'm always more for the fact that as few ordinary people as possible own as many coins as possible compared to rich individuals and companies.

There are already several topics about this, and you surely remember this one -> Shrinkflation

[avikz]

Shrinkflation - it is not a new term in economics. There is always two sides to a story.

Money printing - floods the market with new money supply effectively bringing down the purchasing power of money.

Effect on the companies - in a competitive market, when the purchasing power of money goes down, the companies struggle to maintain profitability if they sell a certain product at the ongoing price point. When increasing price is not an option due to steep competition, they reduce the size/quantity of the product. That's what it is.

The government will always play such games to pass on the blame.

[kryptqnick]

Well, high levels of inflation are bad for people who use that currency, and even if we're Bitcoiners, it doesn't mean we don't take part in the traditional economy and don't suffer when prices for basic goods surge. As for shrinkflation, I actually don't mind. The portion gets smaller, but the price remains the same, which means that it remains affordable to people despite inflation, even if it means that now they're buying a smaller portion for the same price. I think it's better than simply raising prices and keeping the sizes the way they used to be.

[yudi09]

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge. But it should also make us more distrustful of the policy makers because they know there's no "Shrinkflation", only inflation and the negative effects of money-printing.

Shrinkflation is just another term to refer to situations that occur invisibly or events that market players are not aware of, carried out by product owners, as explained by Wikipedia regarding the Shrinkflation narrative.
The more money is printed, the more people will realize how important it is to be a long-term Bitcoin holder to protect themselves from the influence of increasingly uncertain economic conditions.
We simply enjoy what they then produce, including the Shrinkflation narrative.

[pooya87]

Politicians and economists should seriously get off their fannies and actually do something instead of creating new fancy words to describe their own mess. It's like this everywhere too, although I'd say France seems to be keeping the record for economic hardship related protests as these days it's farmers turn to be protesting the most and Macron has deployed the military to suppress their protests,.... again! That's instead of actually solving the problem...

We have the parliament elections coming up in a month; so these are the days for "buzzwords" and fake promises for us too. We will soon have weirder terms than "shrinkflation" coming For now candidates are signing up so for now the funniest thing IMO is a dude who has been absent a third of the parliament sessions who became a candidate again...

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge. But it should also make us more distrustful of the policy makers because they know there's no "Shrinkflation", only inflation and the negative effects of money-printing.

Nah, money printing hurts the economy as a whole so much in the long run so that could even negate the profit that is made of bitcoin rising.

[Fortify]

Because the economic situation in some regions of the world continue to worsen, politicians are using newly invented economic terms like "Shrinkflation" to to blame the companies as being too greedy, and to "rationalize" the effects of printing too much money and having too much debt - that the government may never repay.

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge. But it should also make us more distrustful of the policy makers because they know there's no "Shrinkflation", only inflation and the negative effects of money-printing.

Shrinkflation has been around for decades, it's nothing new or unique. Companies try to trick consumers, their customers, in all sorts of different ways - so you always have to be on the look out and probably want to stop using the worst offenders because their are other options out there. Whether it's adding more packaging space (very wasteful), injecting meat with water so it appears to weigh heavier, or purely re-arranging the shape of a chocolate bar to skim off extra grams while still selling it at the same price, the options to be sneaky are huge and in use. There really should be laws that force companies to change their packaging and make sure customers are aware of this abusive manipulation.

[Faisal2202]

Because the economic situation in some regions of the world continue to worsen, politicians are using newly invented economic terms like "Shrinkflation" to to blame the companies as being too greedy, and to "rationalize" the effects of printing too much money and having too much debt - that the government may never repay.

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge. But it should also make us more distrustful of the policy makers because they know there's no "Shrinkflation", only inflation and the negative effects of money-printing.

I heard this word for the first time,. first I heard inflation, then stagflation, and now Shrinkflation, although I did search what is shrinkflation but what I did not understand that how governments are blaming companies that are reducing the product amount/size while the price is not decreasing, Means either the price is same or increasing. How this thing is creating a hurdle for the government to repay the debt.

I mean one thing is with inflation, shrinkflation will increase and that's obvious, so why are they referring to shrinkflation while the main reason is inflation. I think they just practising new words, although I never heard this word from my country's political leaders till now (they might have used this word but I never saw then on TV using this word).

Talking about BTC relation with extensive amount of printing I won't say anything because BTC don't need that, it is already getting everything all it need now is scalability upgrade and you will see more adoption. By scalability upgrades I mean to say fee issue.

[franky1]

shrinkflation is about retaining same retail price but reducing products content/weight

product manufacturers know that consumers have a preferred retail rate. so dont want to sell goods for more, else people just dont buy their product and instead buy a cheaper off-brand
so to counter it in those situations, they make smaller sizes while retaining the retail pricepoint to find the middleground to still offer consumers a branded product at a set pricepoint while continuing to produce a product even when production costs have increased due to inflation

shrinkflation does not cause politicians to then print money...

also if you think printing money is an answer to help bitcoin market rise. you are fooling yourself..
bitcoin doesnt need to push for fiat inflation. bitcoin doesnt need fiat policy to control bitcoin market.

..bitcoin has its own economic reasons to rise..
so fools wanting more fiat money printing actually doesnt help

after all if a loaf of bread cost $1.50 and goes upto $3 due to inflation(no shrinkflation of loaf size, just inflation of fiat loaf price)
OP thinks it will cause bitcoin to 2x.. however when selling bitcoin x2 and buying bread they still end up getting the same number of loaves.
thus pointless

bitcoin should continue to do its own deflation thing to hedge against fiat inflation. not demand more fiat inflation under the STUPID pretence that bitcoin needs fiat inflation to move the bitcoin market

bitcoin has its own economic methods. its own deflationary features. we dont need fiat inflation to control the bitcoin market effects. bitcoin is a natural hedge against inflation without needing to play into inflation

[Churchillvv]

Edited out

Lucius you have probably made my day with your tough and soft truth here. You hit the point one after other and lift me less words to say.

Anyways I will still have to contribute a little to this, I totally disagree with OP on this statement below

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge.

because I will not be happy to see people suffer for the sake of few of us here that are Bitcoin enthusiast. although it will increase the rate at which Bitcoin will be need to cope with the inflation but it's not still a very good idea for me. imagine how hard life is for the poor mass in some areas or countries and how it will be if this inflation keeps going. No I don't welcome more money-printing because it favours me but want the wellness of the masses which we are still among.

[adaseb]

Yeah I noticed that if the prices stayed the same for certain goods, the portions are almost always smaller. Usually the container is the same but the portions inside are smaller.

I noticed this when I had old boxes of some products I used to buy. The box is the same, but the Grams per box is usually slightly smaller. Very sneaky way of dealing with inflation pretty much. Leave the price the same but put less product on the inside.

Some products are worse becuase they increased prices and also shrunk the box. So you are getting 2 bad deals for the same product as before.

[franky1]

Some products are worse becuase they increased prices and also shrunk the box. So you are getting 2 bad deals for the same product as before.

thats called greedflation

inflation is just price increase
shrinkflation is same price less product weight
greedflation is both price up and product weight down

[Apocollapse]

Put blame on someone is easier than saying sorry because of own mistakes, that's why the government blame the company and citizen, company blame the government and citizen blame the government.

Government prints out money to pay debts and tightening the tax rules to make the rich can't evade from paying tax.
In other scenario when the citizen complaints for getting smaller size, the company will blame the government since they can't reduce the FED interest rate. This will make the citizen blames the government.

[livingfree]

Because the economic situation in some regions of the world continue to worsen, politicians are using newly invented economic terms like "Shrinkflation" to to blame the companies as being too greedy, and to "rationalize" the effects of printing too much money and having too much debt - that the government may never repay.

It's always a blame game when they're incompetent and will point out any entity that they can. They can do something about it with their policies and jobs but instead, they make it look like it's uncontrollable which is like half of it is true.

If they've got a better version of themselves and compassion to their people, they're not going to just look at their pockets with these hardships of the economies does. They'd always resort to printing money and blaming any global factors that can't be control.

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge. But it should also make us more distrustful of the policy makers because they know there's no "Shrinkflation", only inflation and the negative effects of money-printing.

While the printing of money will definitely have positive effect to Bitcoin's value and volatility. I don't like another series of printing because we're the one to suffer with the effect of it.

Yes, we get to have more value with the Bitcoins that we hold but in general, everything is going to be up as this inflation is inevitable whenever these scenes come again.

[blckhawk]

Shrinkflation isn't a new term, if I recall correctly, it's a phenomenon where due to the constant economic turmoil due to inflation, the size of the once beloved products are subjected to downsizing and the downsizing of the product can be subtle or obvious, with obvious one, you'd easily see it with their packaging and the weight of the product and with the subtle, they just create the product a bit more smaller than what it used to or skimp on ingredients, there's also one time where they sell fun size of some chips due to this, shrinkflation is a subtle one at best because you don't see it and piece it together once you saw it.

[NotATether]

So they want to blame companies for being greedy while they keep printing more money and piling up debt.

Welcome to capitalism this is one of its defining features. Of course the corporations and other big players become richer at the end of all this.

Although I think making up words for the purpose of politics is just stupid. It waters down discussion and it only makes the people who are debating devolve their arguments into personal attacks.

[mindrust]

Because the economic situation in some regions of the world continue to worsen, politicians are using newly invented economic terms like "Shrinkflation" to to blame the companies as being too greedy, and to "rationalize" the effects of printing too much money and having too much debt - that the government may never repay.
...

Shrinkflation is only the beginning of the collapse.

Shrinkflation isn't a new term, if I recall correctly, it's a phenomenon where due to the constant economic turmoil due to inflation, the size of the once beloved products are subjected to downsizing and the downsizing of the product can be subtle or obvious, with obvious one, you'd easily see it with their packaging and the weight of the product and with the subtle, they just create the product a bit more smaller than what it used to or skimp on ingredients, there's also one time where they sell fun size of some chips due to this, shrinkflation is a subtle one at best because you don't see it and piece it together once you saw it.

It is funny you used that word because there is actually a term for that.

It is called, Skimplation. If you think "Shrinkflation" is bad, wait till you experience "Skimpflation" which is much much worse.

'Skimpflation': An even sneakier form of shrinkflation

Products on shelves are getting quantifiably smaller, yet you're paying the same price: a practice known as 'shrinkflation'. But in addition to shrinking products, businesses are also cutting back on the quality and availability of their services, while keeping prices steady. This is called 'skimpflation' – and although the changes are sometimes significant, they often fly under the radar.

The reason is simple, there is too much money but not enough stuff for everybody. I mean there is enough stuff but not quality stuff. You are eating chicken for example but it is all fed with antibiotics. Have you ever seen a chicken farm? It is disgusting.

At least halt of the world population should disappear so the other half can live like human beings. Thanos get to work mf.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

politicians are using newly invented economic terms like "Shrinkflation"

Every economic term was newly invented at some point, with some being more idiotic and/or intentionally obfuscating than others.  And by the way, liquidity is also a term made up by somebody and is used often and often misused.

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge. But it should also make us more distrustful of the policy makers because they know there's no "Shrinkflation", only inflation and the negative effects of money-printing.

See that bolded part of your statement?  How are you defining liquidity?  How do you know that if money-printing continues that bitcoin will benefit from it?  There's no guarantee whatsoever that it will, I'd argue.

And finally, I don't care if you're the hardest of the hardcore bitcoiners, nobody ought to be rooting for more money-printing.  Why?  Because I would bet the ranch that you buy nearly everything with fiat, and loose policies regarding money supply will destroy your purchasing power.  And even if you buy things with bitcoin, there's most likely a payment processor involved that converts your BTC to fiat, which is what the merchant wants....and the fiat price of whatever you're buying is going to go up, and bitcoin might not. 

Note: when I say "you" I don't mean you personally, Wind_FURY.  I'm speaking in generalities.

[davis196]

Because the economic situation in some regions of the world continue to worsen, politicians are using newly invented economic terms like "Shrinkflation" to to blame the companies as being too greedy, and to "rationalize" the effects of printing too much money and having too much debt - that the government may never repay.

I believe as Bitcoin HODLers, we should welcome more money-printing because Bitcoin will absorb some of that excess liquidity, and make the price surge. But it should also make us more distrustful of the policy makers because they know there's no "Shrinkflation", only inflation and the negative effects of money-printing.

"Greedflation" is another term I stumbled upon last year. I guess that by shrinkflation you mean greedflation.
Shrinklfation is when a company sells less quantity of a product at the same price, instead of rising the price for the previous quantity.
Greedflation is when companies raise prices only for the sake of making bigger profits and using the overall inflation as an excuse to raise the prices. Their production costs didn't change that much, but they keep raising the prices for the consumers. The banks and telecom companies in my country want to increase their prices, even though their costs didn't change that much. This is pure greedflation.