Prices didn’t go back down.
That’s deflation, and is actually really bad for society and the economy overall.
Honestly, more workers need to unionise and restore wages to where they should be (pegging back to rates in the 80s - 90s), minimum wage should be closer $25/hr.
If real wages continue to rise higher than CPI for blue/white collar workers, rather than the capital class - things would be a lot better overall.
Japan has had deflation for 25 years and the zombies haven’t shown up yet. In fact it’s a really nice place.
Turns out deflation isn’t so horrible if it’s only moderate, kind of like inflation.
News flash, most Americans were paycheck to paycheck before inflation, too.
They’ll keep waiting too. Because without some shock therapy like raising min wage to like $25 an hour overnight and taking that economic hit it’s never going to get any better. This is the new normal until that happens.
We were living paycheck to paycheck before that inflation boom too.
But it’s also because inflation is a measurement of velocity, not a static indicator. If you have a year with ten percent inflation, that doesn’t go away without deflation happening and the finance industry would rather nuke the stock exchange than allow deflation.
I mean yeah, lower inflation doesn’t mean prices go back down, and wages didn’t inflate for most people.
They were doing that too begin with though?