Originally Posted by
juslen
What you need to take into account is the fact that milk production should be much more efficient and thus you shouldn't have to work the same number of hours to buy the same amount of milk you could when it was nominally cheaper. All inflation does is many instances is erase productivity gains. Wages rise with inflation, but even though people are more productive than they were back then, they are not able to afford more of the same products relative to those productivity gains. It's like saying adjusted for inflation a car costs the same amount it did 50 years ago, lets just assume this was true, that means that owning a car is just as expensive for lower income people than now than it was back then. That isn't a good thing, even those who are considered "poor" should have a higher standard of living than poor people 50 years ago were able to enjoy. Inflation doesn't mean that prices can not fall over time, inflation is simply an increase in the money supply which tends to result in higher prices, but in the case of something like a TV, which is more affordable today than it was 10 years ago, prices are falling at a slower rate than they would if there wasn't inflation (an increase in the money supply) So if you think a 46 inch TV is more affordable today than it was 10 years ago, just imagine how much cheaper it would be if the federal reserve wasn't debasing our currency. This is precisely why inflation is nothing more than a hidden tax that hurts poor people the most. A loaf of bread shouldn't cost 2 dollars, a gallon of milk should not cost 3.50, poor people shouldn't have to "keep up" with inflation.