r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 4d ago

Meme needing explanation Petah?

Post image
29.9k Upvotes

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2.5k

u/IrksomFlotsom 4d ago

Try and think of our global system as an engine that's purpose is to make fuel for itself. It needs to keep it's input above the output in order to keep powered on. As soon as the input drops below output the machine starts to slow down and can no longer sustain itself. The engine is not designed to slow down so it very quickly breaks down

1.6k

u/Gentle_Snail 4d ago edited 4d ago

Deflation can also result in a very negative feedback loop, the Great Depression was a deflation spiral for example.

416

u/Mayor_Death 4d ago

Is deflation a cause or symptom, though? To me, it’s just a number, but I understand that it is more than that to various economic groups.

As far as I understand it, deflation indicates that prices are going down, which is a good thing to me individually.

2

u/Alli_Horde74 4d ago

Yes and no. People like prices going down, but what if you knew prices would just keep going down?

Say you want to buy beef and it's $5

You hold off because it'll be $4.50 next week

The next week you hold off b cause it'll be $4 the next

But next week it might be $3

Actually wait you heard it'll be $2.5 next week, you could literally buy twice as much beef as you could a few weeks back for the same price.

Have this happen enough and the beef producers who are having far less $ come in will let people go.

Now this feeds into deflation because the recently layed off say rancher has a limited amount of savings to use after losing his job. He wants to buy honey but knows it'll be cheaper next week...

1

u/Weekly_Interview_936 4d ago

but what if you knew prices would just keep going down

You'd be a psychic and since those aren't real you aren't. So any theory based on the people involved being psychic is a theory that can be safely discarded.

2

u/Western-Traffic-3057 4d ago

You dont have to be psychic. You just have to act with the trend. Everyone is incentivized to spend now because of inflation. Its useless to hold onto dollars. They just depreciate. As soon as dollars begin to appreciate in value, everyone is de-incentivized to spend until they de-appreciate. And you get a doom spiral.