> "1. Raise interest rates and stop printing. Crazy inflation stops, but asset prices crash and we enter a major recession or depression. The end result will likely be unrest and blood in the streets."
no, blood and unrest is an unlikely end result of this scenario, though vested interests would really like us to think that. the more likely outcome is a redistribution of wealth toward the lower 99% (concomitantly with a shrunken pie), since the wealthy and powerful have the most, and the most inflated, assets in the first place. that's what they're protecting as if our lives depended on it. that's what the infrastructure+extra spending bills are about, not us little folks. this is why the deflation approach is so threateningly disfavored, because it would flatten the wealth curve.
retirement savings don't affect day-to-day decisions or welfare, and most folks will not be selling their home, especially not in a recession, so those are both non sequiturs. long-term assets, particularly for the middle class, are relatively recession-resistant.
~17% of people right now are living off their retirement and that percentage will increase as baby boomers hit retirement age.
Remember 2008 when a bunch of houses were underwater, cash strapped poor families could neither make payments nor sell to get out, and the whole thing was awful? Yeah that didn't really help wealth inequality.
most households at/near retirement (55+, according to the fed reserve) are doing fine with an average net worth over a million (note that that's all the boomers), and almost none of them are still paying off mortgages. they aren't losing houses nor going without meals. moreover, social security income is inflation protected, as essentially is medicare, so poor elderly are no worse off. again, that's a disingenous argument, the kind often made by politicians seeking political gain, not general welfare.
Please avoid accusing opponents of bad faith, it's distasteful and childish.
If you have "enough" for retirement and then we have a depression where your retirement significantly drops.. that sort of seems like you may no longer have enough. That money needs to last you 20 some years.
Also your claim that most retirees have "an average net worth over a million" appears to be flatly untrue [1]. Please provide a citation.
Significant amounts of retirees are still paying on their mortgage [2] and are affected by changes in the housing market. This especially is important for reverse mortgages.
Social security income does adjust for inflation, but it does so infrequently and is not always a major part of many peoples retirement plans.
A depression or recession would be worse for the common person than any 1%er.
no, blood and unrest is an unlikely end result of this scenario, though vested interests would really like us to think that. the more likely outcome is a redistribution of wealth toward the lower 99% (concomitantly with a shrunken pie), since the wealthy and powerful have the most, and the most inflated, assets in the first place. that's what they're protecting as if our lives depended on it. that's what the infrastructure+extra spending bills are about, not us little folks. this is why the deflation approach is so threateningly disfavored, because it would flatten the wealth curve.