The Societal Affects of Inflation – How You Know Things Are Really Going Bad

Historically speaking, inflation/stagflation has always been a disastrous affair. One is hard pressed to find any legitimate examples of a country that experienced an aggressive inflationary event that came out better for it. A rare scenario would be one in which a nation inflates to fund a war that they then win, but usually negative consequences still happen later down the road.

The problem is that the effects of inflation can be subtle and far reaching, quietly creeping up on a population until suddenly there’s a tidal wave of societal crises. In the US (and much of the western world) we are already witnessing elements of inflationary disaster; there’s a good reason why around 60% of Americans now have a pessimistic view of the future, with a majority of people saying life is worse for them today than it was in the past.

These kinds of dark sentiments usually coincide with inflationary or deflationary pressures. Inflation in particular can be devastating because it represents an ever expanding hidden tax on the life of each citizen. Not only that, but the cure is often worse than the disease, with central banks instituting interest rate hikes that continue longer than most people expect.  Eventually they lead to an engineered deflationary kick in the gut for the economy. For a time, prices will remain high on an array of necessities while wages stagnate, consumer demand shrinks and businesses go bankrupt as borrowing becomes impossible.

A system might be able to absorb this shock as long as it is not burdened with immense debt. In the case of the US, we are HEAVILY burdened with over $33 trillion in national debt (officially) and over $17 trillion in consumer debt. The damage from stagflation and the central bank response will be greatly amplified by this.

So what should we expect when things go truly bad?

Widespread Labor Strikes

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