Inflation makes winners as well as losers, as I noted in previous posts. The public’s loathing of it, however, seems pretty universal. Why?
For several reasons. First of all, most Americans who are younger than I am have never experienced it before. The novelty of it bites. Second, it impacts everyone, and on a daily basis. That is not true of unemployment. Third, it is unpredictable, and so makes a mockery of financial planning. Finally, it is natural for people to apply the wrong baseline out of a natural sense of optimism. If your wages go up, but so does the cost of living, you will probably think you were entitled to the raise, and that the increased costs are a form of injustice, not the creation of an equilibrium.