Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Something I’ve wondered, is there an amount of money that can’t be spent without changing the meaning of money? If I have $1 I can spend it right away on something tangible, like a can of Coca Cola. If I have $1 Trillion, it would be hard to spend on tangible products. I could probably buy the Coca Cola company and the secret recipe but not a Trillion cans of Coke. The value of money exists on a spectrum. The spending habits of the wealthy and poorest of us reflect this. The wealthy invest and save, but the poorest live paycheck to paycheck. The time spent owning the value of the dollars changes the more of them you have. You may own stocks, but the value can change wildly based on public sentiment, unlike my can of Coke. So where on the spectrum does this printed money go? If it goes to the poorest, it would be spent right away and directly likely leads to inflation of the price of consumer goods. If it goes to wealthiest, it may trickle down in the form of stock prices or investment capital that allows businesses and jobs to be created which at some point may lead to the price of a Coke going up. An 8.5% increase in printed money hasn’t led to 8.5% increase in inflation, so what’s the equation that explains this? I’m also not sure how it makes sense to do this math in percentages.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: