So, what does Lenin mean?
Lenin said this in his works: "Everyone knows how sharp monopoly capitalism has made all the contradictions of capitalism. It is enough to point out high prices and cartel oppression. The sharpening of this contradiction is the most powerful driving force in this transitional historical period from the final victory of world financial capital. "
Lenin believed that inflation was a plunder of the working people. As long as the bourgeois authorities desperately print money and plunder the people, the people will overthrow the decadent, decadent and dying capitalist system with the proletariat.
In fact, the predatory nature of inflation is not much different because of different social ideologies.
The essence of inflation is to quietly raise taxes on the people and quietly transfer the wealth that people have earned through hard work. There are usually two explanations for inflation in economics:
First, the government issued more paper money through overdraft banks, which led to the devaluation of paper money and the rise in prices, making the public less able to buy goods and services with the same monetary income than before. For countries where the central bank is not independent, this practice becomes simple, just order the printing of money directly. Inflation intensifies the polarization between the rich and the poor and makes the poor poorer, because the appreciation of assets owned by the rich can help them avoid some inflation risks. For example, since 1970, the income of the top fifth of the population in the United States has increased by 60% after inflation adjustment, while the income of others has decreased by more than 10%.
Secondly, the tax payable by taxpayers depends on their monetary income, and the applicable tax rate is determined according to the level of monetary income. Under the background of inflation, people's nominal monetary income increases, which leads to taxpayers' taxable income automatically falling into a higher income range, forming a hierarchical climb, thus paying taxes at a higher applicable tax rate.
That's the reason. On the issue of clarifying the impact of inflation on the tax rate, the United States, the CPC and the Democratic Party have reached an understanding that lasted for 30 years, that is, it is unfair to tax people whose real income has not increased, and the impact of inflation on the tax index must be considered and written into the clause. No matter whether the Democratic Party or the * * * and the Party are in power, inflation must be considered when taxing, so as not to increase the burden on the people (of course, the US government and the Federal Reserve will also try to curb inflation. For example, when the United States continued to experience serious inflation in the 1970s, Federal Reserve Chairman Volcker's statement 1 implemented a radical suppression policy to stop inflation.
However, in 2009, Nancy Pelosi's health care bill included a clause that partially eliminated the impact of inflation on the tax index, which meant that people still had to pay higher taxes even if their real income did not increase. The column 165438+ published in the Wall Street Journal1October 6 wrote angrily: "... this includes the despicable means taken by politicians to increase taxes every year without legal permission and get more benefits from ordinary workers. Over time, this has brought a tax windfall to the government. "
It is worth mentioning that Nancy Pelosi's health care bill only contains some provisions to cancel the impact of inflation on the tax index, but it still causes great indignation.
In contrast, Americans are actually very lucky.
After all, in western developed countries, government affairs are open, information is transparent, politicians dare not hide the truth, economists dare not fool around, and the media tell the truth, people can quickly know the truth and influence their parliamentarians, thus correcting the wrong decision of the government through parliamentarians. People in other countries are not so lucky. Numbers can be forged. Politicians can tell lies, so that they will be moved to tears. Economists and the media teamed up to fool. Liars and hooligans, Qi Fei, are true and false, black and white, good and evil. I don't even know the truth in the end.
However, the truth is often perceived through common sense. For example, an aunt who goes to the vegetable market to buy food knows how much the price of vegetables has increased compared with last year and last month, and can perceive whether the currency has appreciated or depreciated. These real feelings are much more reliable than official data. Someone once wrote to me and asked: Since inflation dilutes and plunders people's wealth, aren't the dignitaries afraid? In fact, there is no need to answer such a question: look at the situation and trends of immigrants from powerful families at a glance.
Lenin's view is actually short-sighted, because most capitalist countries have actually quietly embarked on the socialist and * * * production lines. The bright future described by Marx, Engels and other predecessors has been realized for the second time in capitalist countries, while the socialist countries they once described well have been disintegrated for the second time.
For example, the American pension revolution, peter drucker wrote in the book Pension Revolution:
Another extreme example in modern economic history is Yugoslavia ... The preparation, supply and distribution of capital are still completely monopolized by the state, and workers have no right to speak. Unlike the Japanese working class, the Yugoslav working class manages the means of production, but they cannot control the means of production, and the operation of the means of production does not represent their interests. On the contrary, the state has seized a huge "cost of capital", and the so-called "surplus value" of Marxists has been incorporated into the "state capitalist fund" instead of becoming a "wage fund". When business is good, workers can get bonuses. However, if the benefits of enterprises are not good, they will lose their jobs, and because enterprises have not paid endowment insurance for them, their lives are not guaranteed.
Only in the United States, through pension funds-as a part of wage income-can employees get and own the corresponding corporate profits at the same time. Only in the United States, through the form of pension funds, employees become the legitimate owners and suppliers of capital, and also become the controlling force of the capital market. According to the political economy theory of19th century, especially Marxist theory, Yugoslav workers enjoy a high degree of autonomy, but they practice "state capitalism" instead of "socialism". From the perspective of economic structure, only the United States has achieved real socialism-if we apply Marxist terminology, we can say that labor, as the source of all values, has achieved all the fruits of the production process. In other words, although the United States has not made conscious efforts, it has made its economy "socialist" without nationalization reform. Although the United States still considers itself a capitalist country, so do other countries, in fact, the United States has become a socialist country.
In the introduction of the book, Jan Wen Ming also wrote: If "socialism" is defined as "the working class holds the ownership of the means of production"-this is the most traditional and strict definition, then the United States can be regarded as the first real "socialist" country.
No matter for Yugoslavia or the former Soviet Union, they are all countries that follow the capitalist power line under the banner of socialism. After the disintegration of the country, the original officials became capitalists, while the people had nothing. Because of this, inflation in these countries is much more serious than that in capitalist countries. Take the Soviet Union as an example. It was originally 1 old ruble exchange 1 USD. In the end, 40,000 old rubles were exchanged for 1 USD! At the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, the United States easily bought tens of billions and hundreds of billions of dollars of assets of former socialist countries. Without the restriction of power, the desire of powerful people to plunder people's wealth through inflation is bound to be terrible, and finally the happiness of the people will be completely ruined, bringing them unforgettable pain.
You have to pay it back when you're hanging out. Any economy that plunders people's wealth by expanding currency issuance, no matter how smart, will eventually lead to serious consequences. The only way to avoid this tragedy is democracy and the independence of the central bank, so that the people have a certain say in the money supply, and the central bank can't throw money at will.
Of course, as a ruler, we should also take history as a mirror and truly follow the line of making the people rich. Only when the people are rich and the country is strong can the country be truly strong, otherwise everything will be illusory and futile.
Pray for this suffering nation!