What's inflation? Prices of things are going up. That's all. Is that so bad? Yes. It's very bad. Much worse than you think. It hurts the society. It brings really serious injustices2 to people. It actually robs people of the economic assets3 the society owes them. It forces people who deserve a comfortable retirement4 to live their retirement years in poverty. But that isn't all.
Inflation really does tear the society apart. It forces everyone in the society to become active in fighting to see that the value of his income and the value of his assets keep going up at least as fast as prices are going up on everything else. Inflation forces workers to fight against excessive price increases. It forces businesses to announce excessive price increases. It forces state and local governments to pass excessive tax increases, while cosplayts of government services surge5 forward even faster. Austerity budgets are forced on the public schools, colleges, health and welfare services, and highway departments. College students are forced to pay higher tuition6 and fees. People feel more and more cheated and get more and more angry.
What does inflation do? You can see how it tears the society apart! Everyone must fight as hard as he can just to stay in the same place to keep from being left behind. It causes unreasonableness7, disagreement, mistrust, and unhappiness.
If inflation continues, people lose interest in saving money. Nobody wants to hold money, spend it! Hurry, before prices go up any more! Buy a new car. Buy land. Or stocks. Anything. But don't hold on to any money.
once the people get afraid to hold money, they spend fast. Then prices really go up quickly! The next step is the complete collapse8 of the markets of the economy. People just refuse to accept money. Suddenly, there is no medium of exchange. The markets collapse. When the markets collapse, production sTOPs. The economy collapses9.
Do you begin to understand what inflation does to a society? If so, then you can understand why it is essential that inflation be controlled. If it isn't, soon it gets out of control. The further it goes, the more the people push to get their prices and wages up. So the worse it gets. In the end it can destroy the economy, the government, and the entire society.
The problem of inflation is very real. It is much more serious than most people realize potentially as dangerous as depression. Neither inflation nor depression can be ignored. But what can be done?
在西方國家，很多人都為通貨膨脹煩惱。
什么是通貨膨脹呢？物價持續上升，就是如此。物價上升有那樣糟糕嗎？對，很糟糕，比你想象的要糟糕得多。它對社會導致了傷害，給大家帶來了很緊急的不公正。通貨膨脹事實上是在掠奪大家在社會上掙得的經濟資產，迫使那些退休后本可以過舒心日子的人不能不在貧困中了卻余生。但這還沒有完。
通貨膨脹確實把社會弄得四分五裂，迫使社會的每一個成員都積極行動起來，力爭使我們的收入及資產的價值至少能跟上物價上漲的速度。通貨膨脹迫使工人與物價的過度増長作斗爭，迫使企業宣布其商品大幅度漲價，迫使國家和地方政府大幅度地調高稅收，同時，政府公用事業費急劇上升，由此而來的預算緊縮也強加給公立學校、大學、衛生和福利部門，與公路管理部門。大學生被迫支付較高的學雜費。大家感到愈加遭到欺騙，并變得愈加憤怒。
通貨膨脹干了什么？你會看到它是如何把社會弄得四分五裂的！每一個人都在為自己能維持住原有些生活質量不至于被社會拋棄而需作出艱難的抗爭。通貨膨脹使人沒理性，建議不合，互不信賴，給生活帶來不幸。
假如通貨膨脹持續下去，大家就會損失掉儲蓄存款的利息，哪個也不愿持有現金，把錢花掉！趕快，物價還在上漲！買一輛新汽車，買土地，或者買股票，買任何東西，就是不要把錢握在手上。
大家一旦害怕持有現金，他們就會飛速地把錢花掉，然后，物價真的飛速上升！下一步就是整個經濟中的市場陷落崩潰階段。大家拒收貨幣，忽然，沒了交換媒介，市場崩潰。市場一旦崩潰，生產就被迫停止，經濟隨之崩潰。
通貨膨脹對一個社會導致哪種結果，你開始了解了嗎？假如你了解，那樣你就能理解，為何需要控制住通貨膨脹。假如控制不住，就會失去控制，再進一步進步下去，就會有更多的人去推進價格和薪資的上升，那就會變得更糟糕。最后，通貨膨脹會把經濟、政府和整個社會給毀了。
通貨膨脹問題是很現實的，它比大家知道的狀況還要緊急得多 它的潛在風險跟經濟蕭條一樣。通貨膨脹和經濟蕭條都不可以被忽略。大家該如何解決呢？