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ProudNewEnglander's avatar

To answer your second question, yes, prices should return to what they were after inflation. If a product doesn't change, then in the medium/long term there's no reason why the price should change. And in fact, in the long term, technological advances in production, distribution, and transportation should result in prices going down!

And like I said above, wage growth does NOT make inflation OK. Wage growth is earned, and to have all the effort of earning a higher wage be taken away by inflation is a terrible feeling!

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Tigercourse's avatar

That is not how inflation works. It is not how inflation has ever worked. Inflation is basically always happening and the prices of goods and services, except maybe for airline tickets, do not drop over time. Furthermore, once heavier inflation starts, it is very hard to stop it. Usually, a recession is needed. Biden created an economic miracle in which inflation was stopped without a recession.

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Paleo's avatar

Because this was a supply problem not excess demand. The economy wasn't overheated to start.

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Tigercourse's avatar

The economy was, and is, on top of a 10+ year bull run.

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Paleo's avatar

The stock market may be, but the economy, after several years of mild growth, underwent a major disruption in 2020.

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benamery21's avatar

More of a bullish crawl out of a deep morass for most of that time, tho...

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ProudNewEnglander's avatar

And the American people have said that “the way things have always worked” isn't working for them. It's why institutionalism hasn't worked for Dems, because people don't think the institutions are helping them.

Telling the American people “we can't do what you want us to do” is possibly the worst electoral strategy ever devised.

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Tigercourse's avatar

What you want is fundamentally impossible. If the Democrats have to do the impossible... That's it.

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TheDude415's avatar

So Democrats should lie to the voters?

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Andrew's avatar

It works for Republicans. I remember one year for Xmas getting some generic cheap ass version of a My Little Pony. I was unhappy at first but that shit still worked.

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Blomstervaenget's avatar

Prices haven't gone down during the past 100 years except for during recessions.

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benamery21's avatar

Gasoline prices have, more than once.

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Andrew's avatar

They don’t really count. They go up and down every day. A 12-pack of pop went from a solid $4.99 to $5.49 and I had questions. Then came Covid and it went to $8.49 and hasn’t budged.

You could argue those go on sale while gas doesn’t it. So pop fluctuates week to week depending on the store/s you go to.

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benamery21's avatar

Yes, price changes and underlying inflation are different things economically. Gasoline prices are widely overweighted in public opinion and have been and could yet be significantly lower absent economic devastation and economy wide deflation. This is terrible policy, but great politics.

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Ben F.'s avatar

That's deflation, and that is a sign of an actively bad economy.

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