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Honest question, not an economist. How would giving everyone money impact inflation? Is giving money the same thing as “printing money?”


Giving money != printing money. If I give you $20 that doesn't mean I fabricated the bill myself. The money could come from any numbers of places in the vast Federal budget.


The budget already has a huge deficit. They'd have to cut funding to something, in order not to increase it further. Or they could add it to the deficit (which means borrowing the money), and that translates to higher inflation, pretty much, as banks create the borrowed money. Recent lowering of the interest rates by the FED also plays into this.

I think any kind of stimulus will almost certainly translate to higher inflation.

It's not necessarily bad. It's a bit of an equalizer. You give money to everyone, money loses value somewhat, but only the people who have the most money at the moment, will suffer from the inflation in absolute terms (money received vs value of savings lost).


Typically it's redistribution. If you combine a progressive tax with a flat handout, you're basically taking from the rich and giving to the poor.




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