Inflation and Inequality
Throughout history, inflation, social injustice, and political upheaval have been strongly correlated; this association is neither coincidental nor arbitrary, but has much to do with the impact of inflation on the distribution of income and wealth between the various classes of society. Inflation generally aggravates inequality and disturbs existing patterns of income differentials: In these roles it can be a ruthless and remorseless economic agent. It is empirically true that in many historical and contemporary contexts, rapid price change has had Darwinian, survival of the fittest overtones. The strong and the powerful have tended to forge ahead, enhancing their relative positions and engendering much popular hatred. John Maynard Keynes described these people as "the 'profiteers' . . . the entrepreneurial class of capitalists . .. who in a period of rapidly rising prices cannot but get rich quick. If prices are continually rising, every trader who has purchased for stock or owns property and plant inevitably makes profits."1 The elderly, the poor, and the unemployed are often both economically and politically powerless and are therefore unable to generate the