Your prices from 1980 aren't adjusted for inflation.
The point of the price comparison was to ballpark the rate of inflation which currently exists, in order to answer your question "Do you think they will have a massive inflation problem?". Inflation exists, it exists partly because of government money printing but mostly because of fractional reserve lending. It's only a problem if it accrues consequences. The consequence of inflation, for me, is that saving money means my savings get bled away by a hidden tax. Consequence of that is to avoid that tax I have to put my money into the stock market. Consequence of that is a stock market sloshing around middle-class money that doesn't really want to be there, with the attendant wealth transfer from the middle-class to the professional investor class. I think inflation is a problem because consequences of inflation accrue to me. Others might think it's beneficial because they can profit by it.
point of the price comparison was to ballpark the rate of inflation which currently exists
Your point lacked also the increase in hourly earnings. If the price for everything goes up 3 times but your earnings also go up 3 times for the same work, you didn't lose anything.
As for how inflation is a hidden tax, welcome to capitalism. Moderate inflation (around 2%) is needed in our current economic model. Stagnation or even deflation have devastating effects on a capitalistic society. Same goes for hyper inflation.
Hyper-inflation is a special case wherein confidence in the government issuing the currency has basically collapsed; let's set that to one side.
I have no problem imagining a capitalistic nation-in-a-bottle which matches the expansion of the money supply to population growth and a pound of potatoes in 2020 costs the same as a pound of potatoes in 1980. Where do the devastating effects of a stable currency come from, other than in trade wars caused by the debased currencies of other nations? We can do capitalism without fractional reserve lending, we just get a slower velocity of money.
Well you're seeing some obvious flaw that I'm not. How does 2% inflation stave off devastating effects on capitalism? Is it a velocity of money issue? Or is it a matter of all nations needing to devalue currency at the same rate to keep trade steady?
The point of the price comparison was to ballpark the rate of inflation which currently exists, in order to answer your question "Do you think they will have a massive inflation problem?". Inflation exists, it exists partly because of government money printing but mostly because of fractional reserve lending. It's only a problem if it accrues consequences. The consequence of inflation, for me, is that saving money means my savings get bled away by a hidden tax. Consequence of that is to avoid that tax I have to put my money into the stock market. Consequence of that is a stock market sloshing around middle-class money that doesn't really want to be there, with the attendant wealth transfer from the middle-class to the professional investor class. I think inflation is a problem because consequences of inflation accrue to me. Others might think it's beneficial because they can profit by it.
Your point lacked also the increase in hourly earnings. If the price for everything goes up 3 times but your earnings also go up 3 times for the same work, you didn't lose anything.
As for how inflation is a hidden tax, welcome to capitalism. Moderate inflation (around 2%) is needed in our current economic model. Stagnation or even deflation have devastating effects on a capitalistic society. Same goes for hyper inflation.
Hyper-inflation is a special case wherein confidence in the government issuing the currency has basically collapsed; let's set that to one side.
I have no problem imagining a capitalistic nation-in-a-bottle which matches the expansion of the money supply to population growth and a pound of potatoes in 2020 costs the same as a pound of potatoes in 1980. Where do the devastating effects of a stable currency come from, other than in trade wars caused by the debased currencies of other nations? We can do capitalism without fractional reserve lending, we just get a slower velocity of money.
What you describe are pipe dreams. As realistic as functioning Communist countries. Nations-in-a-bottle don't exist. These are just idealistic dreams.
Well you're seeing some obvious flaw that I'm not. How does 2% inflation stave off devastating effects on capitalism? Is it a velocity of money issue? Or is it a matter of all nations needing to devalue currency at the same rate to keep trade steady?