In western countries many people worry about inflation¹.
　　What's inflation? Prices of things are going up. That's all. Is that so bad? Yes. It's very bad. Much worse than you think. It hurts the society. It brings really serious injustices² to people. It actually robs people of the economic assets³ the society owes them. It forces people who deserve a comfortable retirement⁴ to live their retirement years in poverty. But that isn't all.

　　Inflation really does tear the society apart. It forces everyone in the society to become active in fighting to see that the value of his income and the value of his assets keep going up at least as fast as prices are going up on everything else. Inflation forces workers to fight against excessive price increases. It forces businesses to announce excessive price increases. It forces state and local governments to pass excessive tax increases, while costs of government services surge⁵ forward even faster. Austerity budgets are forced on the public schools, colleges, health and welfare services, and highway departments. College students are forced to pay higher tuition⁶ and fees. People feel more and more cheated and get more and more angry.

　　What does inflation do? You can see how it tears the society apart! Everyone must fight as hard as he can just to stay in the same place —— to keep from being left behind. It causes  unreasonableness⁷, disagreement, mistrust, and unhappiness.

　　If inflation continues, people lose interest in saving money. Nobody wants to hold money, spend it! Hurry, before prices go up any more! Buy a new car. Buy land. Or stocks. Anything. But don't hold on to any money.

　　Once the people get afraid to hold money, they spend fast. Then prices really go up quickly! The next step is the complete collapse⁸ of the markets of the economy. People just refuse to accept money. Suddenly, there is no medium of exchange. The markets collapse. When the markets collapse, production stops. The economy collapses⁹.

　　Do you begin to understand what inflation does to a society? If so, then you can understand why it is essential that inflation be controlled. If it isn't, soon it gets out of control. The further it goes, the more the people push to get their prices and wages up. So the worse it gets. In the end it can destroy the economy, the government, and the entire society.

　　The problem of inflation is very real. It is much more serious than most people realize —— potentially as dangerous as depression. Neither inflation nor depression can be ignored. But what can be done?

　　在西方国家，许多人都为通货膨胀烦恼。

　　什么是通货膨胀呢？物价持续上升，就是这样。物价上升有那么糟糕吗？对，非常糟糕，比你想象的要糟糕得多。它对社会造成了伤害，给人们带来了非常严重的不公正。通货膨胀实际上是在掠夺人们在社会上挣得的经济资产，迫使那些退休后本可以过舒心日子的人不得不在贫困中了却余生。但这还没完。

　　通货膨胀确实把社会弄得四分五裂，迫使社会的每个成员都积极行动起来，力争使自己的收入及资产的价值至少能跟上物价上涨的速度。通货膨胀迫使工人与物价的过度増长作斗争，迫使企业宣布其产品大幅度涨价，迫使国家和地方政府大幅度地调高税收，同时，政府公用事业费急剧上升，由此而来的预算紧缩也强加给公立学校、大学、卫生和福利部门，以及公路管理部门。大学生被迫支付较高的学杂费。人们感到越来越受到欺骗，并变得越来越愤怒。

　　通货膨胀干了什么？你会看到它是怎样把社会弄得四分五裂的！每个人都在为自己能保持住原有的生活水平——不至于被社会抛弃而需作出艰难的抗争。通货膨胀使人没有理性，意见不合，互不信任，给生活带来不幸。

　　如果通货膨胀持续下去，人们就会损失掉储蓄存款的利息，谁也不愿持有现金，把钱花掉！赶快，物价还在上涨！买一辆新汽车，买土地，或者买股票，买任何东西，就是不要把钱握在手上。

　　人们一旦害怕持有现金，他们就会迅速地把钱花掉，然后，物价真的迅速上升！下一步就是整个经济中的市场陷落崩溃阶段。人们拒收货币，突然，没有了交换媒介，市场崩溃。市场一旦崩溃，生产就被迫停止，经济随之崩溃。

　　通货膨胀对一个社会造成什么样的结果，你开始明白了吗？如果你明白，那么你就能理解，为什么必须控制住通货膨胀。如果控制不住，就会失控，再进一步发展下去，就会有更多的人去推动价格和工资的上升，那就会变得更糟糕。最终，通货膨胀会把经济、政府和整个社会给毁了。

通货膨胀问题是非常现实的，它比人们了解的情况还要严重得多 —— 它的潜在危害跟经济萧条一样。通货膨胀和经济萧条都不能被忽视。我们该怎么办呢？