inflation

Jim heartfield jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk
Fri Feb 11 03:40:25 PST 2000


In message <v0422080db4c8b46f3ff9@[166.84.250.86]>, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> writes
>Yup. I know why the bourgeoisie hates inflation - I was curious to
>hear Rakesh explain how it liked inflation at one point and stopped
>liking it another.

I think you have to unpick 'the bourgeoisie hates inflation' as a proposition. In the early 1970s the US oil manufacturers did not seem to mind inflation when they sought to boost their profits through price hikes, even though they later tried to blame it all on the Arabs.

When food prices were rocketing in Britain in the seventies they were being put up by capitalist supermarkets and manufacturers. Then price rises were effectively a reduction in wages.

It was only when inflation aggravated the pay-round leading to industrial conflict that the bourgeoisie started fretting about inflation, which they realised was making them deeply unpopular.

Further, the constant refrain of 'down with inflation' in Britain in the 1980s and early 90s was perverse as well. Throughout those slump years (barring the late eighties burn-up) there were no inflationary pressures in the economy. The Conservative government used to put spokesmen on TV every night saying, well unemployment is up and the economy is slow, but at least we have inflation under control! Then their hatred of inflation was entirely manufactured, because they knew that it was the one indicator that made the slump years look good.

-- Jim heartfield



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