When you inflate something, you make it larger. The word we should be using instead is Devaluation. Our money isn’t getting worth MORE, it’s getting worth LESS. It steadily Devalues. But the Powers That Be like to keep us confused so they chose a word that’s the opposite of what really happens.
Inflation/devaluation is a deliberate act, it’s not something that happens naturally as a consequence of population growth. If the amount of money in circulation stayed the same while the number of people increased, the money would increase in value, not decrease. And it’s not because too much extra money has been printed or that the population has increased.
It’s because our government controls the prices of goods and those running our government make more money every time profits from those goods increase. So they slowly, steadily increase the cost of everything we buy to live by increasing taxes, tariffs, license fees, fines, limiting production, blocking imports and so on. The way they make profits increase is by passing Minimum Wage Laws that increase average wages to average workers, at first. But then, the increased cost of labor drives up manufacturing and service costs, so the cost of goods goes up while the workers are stuck at minimum wage and what was an increase in income before, becomes a shortage of income because their income now isn’t buying what it used to.
So they clamor for an increase in the Minimum Wage, but that takes Congress a VERY long time to finally pass and when they do, it barely compensates for the devaluation of the money caused by the wage increase. The last increase was in 2009, to $7.25 an hour. Today, you need $15 an hour to barely get by.
Before there were Minimum Wage laws, wages stayed fairly constant and prices rose very slowly. Unskilled Labor wages were low, but might increase when the person learned skills and showed ability, if the employer was willing to, which wasn’t often because it took away from profits. So unions were formed to force higher wages and Minimum Wage laws were passed, increasing manufacturing costs which increased prices to increase profit.
In other words, those in control always get cheap labor compared to their profit and the longer they can keep the labor cost down, the more profit they make. This is why they keep Inflating/Devaluing the money, it doesn’t matter what the value of the dollar or peso is compared to the year before, it only matters what the percent of profit is.
If the average worker makes $1000 a year and profits me another $1000, and the dollar devalues by half, the worker is still making $1000 a year but I’m now profiting $2000 a year. Until I finally decide to give him a Minimum Wage increase before he starves to death.
This is why we have Inflation/Devaluation.