An economics question
Why is deflation bad?
I mean, I understand that it is an indicator of badness. It indicates reduced demand for things, which is likely caused by people having (or believing they have) less discretionary cash to spend.
I realize that deflation can fall into a self-feeding spiral, with the people who sell things earning less, so they spend less, or pay their employees less, and that leads to those people spending less, etc. etc.
I fail to see how this is significantly worse than the other option: inflation that is not matched by wage increases. For at least a decade, the median wage has not kept up with the rate of inflation. This has been largely hidden by the utterly asinine way "cost-of-living" inflation is calculated. (Here's a tip: if you don't include FOOD STAPLES in your calculation, then it's not looking at the cost of living. If you are able to live without buying food, then please let the rest of us know how it's done.)
So the current deflation, or feared deflation, or potential deflation, or whatever the fuck economists are shaking in their wingtips about, isn't deflation. It's reality. It's "market correction." It's the collective behavior of people who have just woken up and realized they were being fed a line of bullshit for the past decade, and they aren't actually as well-off as they thought they were.
It's pretty sad if your economy is only considered "healthy" when it's being held aloft by faith and fairy dust.
So unless someone can explain this to me better, I'm not minding the notion of deflation. Is it good? No. But it's just an indicator. It's a result, not a cause. It wasn't dropped here by terrorists in order to destroy our way of life. Quit bewailing deflation and start figuring out what's causing it, and fix that.
I recommend starting with a trip to the grocery store.