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Why must revolutionaries worry about inflation? That cannot be answered without a simultaneous worry about wages. Even in a capitalist system, if wages rise with inflation then that is of benefit to borrowers as they pay back the advance (home, auto, credit cards, etc.) with ‘cheaper’ dollars. The key is the ratio of inflation to the wage. Indexing the wage to the rate of inflation, i.e. say a wage of $20 per hour is increased 100%, to match the 100% rate of inflation, leaves the real purchasing power of the wage the same but devalues debt by 50%. But more to the point here is that inflation, properly used, deliberately induced inflation, can be a monetary tool that we can use as one method of aiding the transition from a capitalist system to a socialist system-- which itself ought be transitioning in its role as a precursor of a communistic economy and society. Inflation. Inflation as a transitional device. Deliberately induced inflation. Created by a printing press ‘bazooka’, initially, to give to all a GAI (UBI) <https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=GAI+(UBI)>. Then, after an initial pre-inflation wage boost (most important are a rise in the minimum and the guarantee of employment), the creation of new currency, perhaps a la the Mexican nuevo peso in 1993, and at the same time an indexing to the rate of inflation of wages, pensions, welfare, bank accounts (up to a limit of say, e.g., the FDIC limit of $100,000), even shareholdings and bonds (to that limit) held by individuals, perhaps in 401Ks. All these would again be protected by being indexed to the rate of inflation. Limits for housing ownership, subject to socially set limits. Savings, incomes, capital gains above this or that limit (or any limit that society sets) would be subject to being devalued by the deliberately induced inflation. Expropriation through inflation. Where's the money for this?" Well jobs don't cost they pay. Ask any capitalist hiring any worker. But w/o going into that question there's a simple answer to the first question about "Where the money?" The answer is 'print' it. They did it ($750bill) for the banks. Twice. Bush and Obama. Paulson's 'bazooka'. They (then We) can print as much as 'needed' to fund this. The Fed Res has such power to transfer purchasing power (which is all that this is) as real purchasing power is created only through work. Such a transfer by inflation reallocates the purchasing power by making accumulated dollars worth less through inflation. Individuals with modest savings can be protected by indexing these to the rate of inflation. Same with wages. Pensions ditto. Etc. Those with larger fortunes would see these reduced by as much as the working class has the will to do it: Nationalization through redistribution of the ruling class' liquid assets by inflation. This, and all of this could be accomplished, I am certain with a tiny portion of the computing power already extant. See almost anything by W Paul Cockshott. Information is essential as production goals need be tailored to consumer needs and desires. "Book-keeping, as the control and ideal synthesis of the process, becomes the more necessary the more the process assumes a social scale and loses its purely individual character. It is therefore more necessary in capitalist production than in the scattered production of handicraft and peasant economy, more necessary in collective production than in capitalist production...” Marx. “Capital. Vol 2. Chap VI.” https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1885-c2/ch06.htm#1.2 “…after the abolition of the capitalist mode of production, but still retaining social production, the determination of value continues to prevail in the sense that the regulation of labour-time and the distribution of social labour among the various production groups, ultimately the book-keeping encompassing all this, become more essential than ever.” Vol 3. Chap IL. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch49.htm JAI _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
