What's inflation？ Prices of things are going up. That's all. Is that so bad？ Yes. It's very bad. Much worse than you think. It hurts the society. It brings really serious injustices to people. It actually robs people of the economic assets the society owes them. It forces people who deserve a comfortable retirement to live their retirement years in poverty. But that isn't all.

　　Inflation really does tear the society apart. It forces everyone in the society to become active in fighting to see that the value of his income and the value of his assets keep going up at least as fast as prices are going up on everything else. Inflation forces workers to fight against excessive price increases. It forces businesses to announce excessive price increases. It forces state and local governments to pass excessive tax increases， while costs of government services surge forward even faster. Austerity budgets are forced on the public schools， colleges， health and welfare services， and highway departments. College students are forced to pay higher tuition and fees. People feel more and more cheated and get more and more angry.

　　What does inflation do？ You can see how it tears the society apart！ Everyone must fight as hard as he can just to stay in the same place —— to keep from being left behind. It causes unreasonableness， disagreement， mistrust， and unhappiness.

　　If inflation continues， people lose interest in saving money. Nobody wants to hold money， spend it！ Hurry， before prices go up any more！ Buy a new car. Buy land. Or stocks. Anything. But don't hold on to any money.

　　Once the people get afraid to hold money， they spend fast. Then prices really go up quickly！ The next step is the complete collapse of the markets of the economy. People just refuse to accept money. Suddenly， there is no medium of exchange. The markets collapse. When the markets collapse，production stops. The economy collapses.

　　Do you begin to understand what inflation does to a society？ If so， then you can understand why it is essential that inflation be controlled. If it isn't， soon it gets out of control. The further it goes， the more the people push to get their prices and wages up. So the worse it gets. In the end it can destroy the economy， the government，and the entire society.

　　The problem of inflation is very real. It is much more serious than most people realize ——potentially as dangerous as depression. Neither inflation nor depression can be ignored.

　　什么是通貨膨脹呢？物價(jià)持續(xù)上升，就是這樣。物價(jià)上升有那么糟糕嗎？對(duì)，非常糟糕，比你想象的要糟糕得多。它對(duì)社會(huì)造成了傷害，給人們帶來了非常嚴(yán)重的不公正。通貨膨脹實(shí)際上是在掠奪人們?cè)谏鐣?huì)上掙得的經(jīng)濟(jì)資產(chǎn)，迫使那些退休后本可以過舒心日子的人不得不在貧困中了卻余生。但這還沒完。

　　通貨膨脹確實(shí)把社會(huì)弄得四分五裂，迫使社會(huì)的每個(gè)成員都積極行動(dòng)起來，力爭(zhēng)使自己的收入及資產(chǎn)的價(jià)值至少能跟上物價(jià)上漲的速度。通貨膨脹迫使工人與物價(jià)的過度増長(zhǎng)作斗爭(zhēng)，迫使企業(yè)宣布其產(chǎn)品大幅度漲價(jià)，迫使國(guó)家和地方政府大幅度地調(diào)高稅收，同時(shí)，政府公用事業(yè)費(fèi)急劇上升，由此而來的預(yù)算緊縮也強(qiáng)加給公立學(xué)校、大學(xué)、衛(wèi)生和福利部門，以及公路管理部門。大學(xué)生被迫支付較高的學(xué)雜費(fèi)。人們感到越來越受到欺騙，并變得越來越憤怒。

　　通貨膨脹干了什么？你會(huì)看到它是怎樣把社會(huì)弄得四分五裂的！每個(gè)人都在為自己能保持住原有的生活水平——不至于被社會(huì)拋棄而需作出艱難的抗?fàn)?。通貨膨脹使人沒有理性，意見不合，互不信任，給生活帶來不幸。

　　如果通貨膨脹持續(xù)下去，人們就會(huì)損失掉儲(chǔ)蓄存款的利息，誰也不愿持有現(xiàn)金，把錢花掉！趕快，物價(jià)還在上漲！買一輛新汽車，買土地，或者買股票，買任何東西，就是不要把錢握在手上。

　　人們一旦害怕持有現(xiàn)金，他們就會(huì)迅速地把錢花掉，然后，物價(jià)真的迅速上升！下一步就是整個(gè)經(jīng)濟(jì)中的市場(chǎng)陷落崩潰階段。人們拒收貨幣，突然，沒有了交換媒介，市場(chǎng)崩潰。市場(chǎng)一旦崩潰，生產(chǎn)就被迫停止，經(jīng)濟(jì)隨之崩潰。

　　通貨膨脹對(duì)一個(gè)社會(huì)造成什么樣的結(jié)果，你開始明白了嗎？如果你明白，那么你就能理解，為什么必須控制住通貨膨脹。如果控制不住，就會(huì)失控，再進(jìn)一步發(fā)展下去，就會(huì)有更多的人去推動(dòng)價(jià)格和工資的上升，那就會(huì)變得更糟糕。最終，通貨膨脹會(huì)把經(jīng)濟(jì)、政府和整個(gè)社會(huì)給毀了。

　　通貨膨脹問題是非?，F(xiàn)實(shí)的，它比人們了解的情況還要嚴(yán)重得多 ——它的潛在危害跟經(jīng)濟(jì)蕭條一樣。通貨膨脹和經(jīng)濟(jì)蕭條都不能被忽視。