Let`s print more money and solve the debt problem. That sounds great, but unfortunately, it isn`t so easy as that. We will not be wealthier if we print more money. That is difficult to understand, and why is it like that?
If we print more money, prices will increase and that`s what we call inflation. Let`s suppose the United States printed a lot of money and gave it to everyone in the country. People would pay debt or save the money, but most of them will be spent on different things.
Today, I belive most of them would run to the shops and buy iPhone 6 or the latest version of Xbox. But this would be a problem for both Apple and Microsoft, because the demand will increase. They will simply not have enough products to sell to the market, which means the prices will go up, which means a massive inflation, and our money is devalued.
If Apple and Microsoft increase the production to meet the demand in the market, it will be a problem for the factories too, because their capacity is limited. If the demand increase, the production will also increase, so the prices goes up at the retailer, Apple and factory.
The cost per-unit will rise because of the rise in labor cost at the factory. A rise in cost at the factory rises the price of the product in the shop. All this because of an increase in the demand for the product.
Wages are prices. An hourly wage is the price a man charges for an hour of labor. It`s not possible to stay at the same level if employees work overtime. This is added cost. In some industries it will be a problem to have increased demand, and some will need to hire extra labor. Extra labor will increase wages.
Do you think employees will work more or less if you gave them a lot of money? Labor market pressures requires wages to increase, which means the cost per unit must increase as well. Retailers must raise prices or simply run out of product.
Inflation is when the supply of money goes up and the supply of goods goes down. At the same time, the demand for money goes down, and the demand for goods goes up. Inflation can be avoided, if the factors I mentioned is in balance. It`s all about the balance between the supply of money, and the supply of goods.
Look at Japan. They have printed more money than the U.S, but inflation and interest rates is stable and it has been like this for about 25 years now. They must be doing something right to control the supply and demand of money and goods. All this is theory. Fed Chair Janet Yellen is now warning investors, telling them that the interest rates will start to increase. Many investors are waiting for an imminent hyperinflation. Normally, when the stock market goes down, the interest rate goes up. They are going in the opposite directions.
People think that printing more money will give them more wealth, but that`s not true. If we all have more money, we will not be more wealthy, because more money does nothing to increase the amount of wealth or more «things» in this world.
Why is it like that? It is because the same number of people are looking for the same amount of «things», and that on average will not make people wealthier than before.
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