Quote from darkhorse:
In a way, this is what we are getting. As corporations reduce costs via more productivity from a smaller employee base, and better use of labor-saving technology, cost of goods goes down (apart from food and energy, a different story).
The problem with a potential deflationary cure is that mid-level wrench-turning type jobs are disappearing at a rapid rate - think assembly line workers replaced by robots - and the jobs materializing to take their place are typically at the lower end of the service industry and pay maybe half as much (or less). In spread terms, the bottom is falling out of the pay scale much faster than goods and services costs are falling. So the poverty / unaffordibility spread is widening.
A staggering percentage of Americans already rely on the state in some way shape or form. That percentage is likely to increase. The divide between haves and have nots is going to grow so wide in the coming years, even more redistribution from the state will be the only possible way to rectify it. I am not commenting on whether this is good or bad, moral or immoral, desirable or undesirable, only foreseeing an inevitable response to a growing problem.
I agree here, but I meant monetary deflation, reduced money supply/ higher interest rates = stronger dollar with which consume more at cheaper prices as far as imports.
Lower consumer prices, the robotic assembly lines and things like that increase profit margins because the savings are not passed down, which would be if anything more nominally inflationary, would it not?