Hacker News Reader

Comment by SpicyLemonZest | Hacker News Reader

But if there's special kind of inflation that doesn't hurt people's ability to buy goods and services, does that really matter?

View on HN

If it hurts their ability to invest in assets, then yes. Assets tend to appreciate over time and represent an excellent store of value. Taking that option away from people matters very much.

I'm not sure I see how an increase in the value of assets hurts people's ability to invest in them.

Some assets are indivisible, so increasing value makes it unaffordable. You can't buy a fraction of a house.

For things like stocks, if the increased value is driven by inflation, you get less for your money. So it takes more money to store the same amount of value there.

> You can't buy a fraction of a house.

Isn't that basically what a REIT is? It's also possible to enter into joint ownership of a property. Roommates are also kind of like acquiring a fraction of a house.

==Roommates are also kind of like acquiring a fraction of a house.==

Unless you rent, in which case you are acquiring a fraction of the liability without acquiring any house.

Actually you can buy a fraction of a house:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REIT

Can't really live in a REIT though.

No, but the question was about assets, not housing. A house you own is an asset but your housing arrangement may not be (e.g. if you rent). So for example, a person might rent a place to live in and invest in a REIT to build real estate equity (assuming they specifically want such assets) if they cannot afford to buy an entire house (e.g. if they do not have the money to make a down payment).

You can even buy a fraction of a house on ethereum! https://realt.co/

Because oddly enough, you can't buy classic cars as investment if you don't have the money.

If assets appreciate faster than wages rise, it creates price-points that are too high for people to invest.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com