Wages have kept pace with inflation over the last decades. This means they earned more currency units over time. If we had 0% inflation, they would earn the same number of units. With deflation they would earn fewer units.
If you want to change the amount of wealth low-income earners have, stop focusing on the units. This is not JPow's fault, it's a job for congress - it's social and fiscal policy not monetary policy. This is just a quixotic quest against the wrong opponent.
If you want to help low-income folks, advocate for unions (so labor can push back against capital), advocate for wealth taxes, higher marginal taxes for the rich, minimum wage indexed to inflation, a strong social safety net and national zoning laws to stop metros from preventing adding enough housing supply to meet demand. Things that would help.
That was from 2013, and written from the perspective that gold represents “real” worth - some platonic ideal constant measure, but it doesn’t. It’s a deflationary non-productive asset whose value is speculative and usually varied with general fear of inflation. Inflation is benchmarked against CPI. This is goldbuggery and fringe economics. By the way; that’s from the Forbes opinion piece section, not Forbes proper.
The author suggests you cannot measure inflation except by dividing by the spot price of gold. This is false, and why we have the CPI.
If you want to change the amount of wealth low-income earners have, stop focusing on the units. This is not JPow's fault, it's a job for congress - it's social and fiscal policy not monetary policy. This is just a quixotic quest against the wrong opponent.
If you want to help low-income folks, advocate for unions (so labor can push back against capital), advocate for wealth taxes, higher marginal taxes for the rich, minimum wage indexed to inflation, a strong social safety net and national zoning laws to stop metros from preventing adding enough housing supply to meet demand. Things that would help.