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?
在西方国家，很多人都为通货膨胀烦恼。
什么是通货膨胀呢？物价持续上升，就是如此。物价上升有那样糟糕吗？对，很糟糕，比你想象的要糟糕得多。它对社会导致了伤害，给大家带来了很紧急的不公正。通货膨胀事实上是在掠夺大家在社会上挣得的经济资产，迫使那些退休后本可以过舒心日子的人不能不在贫困中了却余生。但这还没有完。
通货膨胀确实把社会弄得四分五裂，迫使社会的每一个成员都积极行动起来，力争使我们的收入及资产的价值至少能跟上物价上涨的速度。通货膨胀迫使工人与物价的过度増长作斗争，迫使企业宣布其商品大幅度涨价，迫使国家和地方政府大幅度地调高税收，同时，政府公用事业费急剧上升，由此而来的预算紧缩也强加给公立学校、大学、卫生和福利部门，与公路管理部门。大学生被迫支付较高的学杂费。大家感到愈加遭到欺骗，并变得愈加愤怒。
通货膨胀干了什么？你会看到它是如何把社会弄得四分五裂的！每一个人都在为自己能维持住原有些生活质量不至于被社会抛弃而需作出艰难的抗争。通货膨胀使人没理性，建议不合，互不信赖，给生活带来不幸。
假如通货膨胀持续下去，大家就会损失掉储蓄存款的利息，哪个也不愿持有现金，把钱花掉！赶快，物价还在上涨！买一辆新汽车，买土地，或者买股票，买任何东西，就是不要把钱握在手上。
大家一旦害怕持有现金，他们就会飞速地把钱花掉，然后，物价真的飞速上升！下一步就是整个经济中的市场陷落崩溃阶段。大家拒收货币，忽然，没了交换媒介，市场崩溃。市场一旦崩溃，生产就被迫停止，经济随之崩溃。
通货膨胀对一个社会导致哪种结果，你开始了解了吗？假如你了解，那样你就能理解，为何需要控制住通货膨胀。假如控制不住，就会失去控制，再进一步进步下去，就会有更多的人去推进价格和薪资的上升，那就会变得更糟糕。最后，通货膨胀会把经济、政府和整个社会给毁了。
通货膨胀问题是很现实的，它比大家知道的状况还要紧急得多 它的潜在风险跟经济萧条一样。通货膨胀和经济萧条都不可以被忽略。大家该如何解决呢？