China's Xi Jinping asked 'What’s so bad about deflation?' amid economic slowdown, report says
China's Xi Jinping asked 'What’s so bad about deflation?' amid economic slowdown, report says
"Don’t people like it when things are cheaper?" Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly asked his advisers.
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/51182148
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I think the usual issue with deflation that people will wait for prices to keep going down and therefore keep buying less which feeds the deflation.
It's one of those vicious cycles - it's really hard to stop once it starts.
Also, bear in mind that China's recent economic growth has been mainly internal consumer driven (external infrastructure investments have slowed down noticeably as belts are tightened) so while they aren't as fucked as America would be they could see a dramatic rapid decline.
People buying less, ie being more risk averse, and not wanting to take on debt, is a net benefit for everyone. Buying less means less ecological impact. Being more debt averse means fewer wage slaves.
The only people who suffer from "buying less" are corporate owners.
Definitely agree on the ecological advantage, but the current economical system that provides most of the jobs of people here would deflate, people would lose jobs. Less human activity will always be better for ecology, but there's probably some activity we want to keep to make our lifes good.
Kinda wild we can be guilted into buying more because some folks won't help others unless they profit.
If only we could all use less and that be the good thing that it obviously should be.
There's also the fact that debts increase in relative value over time, therefore discouraging people taking out loans for various purposes (mortgages, starting businesses, etc.), which was a major reason for the protests against the gold standard in the US around the late 1800s - see the Cross of Gold speech.