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Comment by margalabargala | Hacker News Reader

> Imagine a world in which prices regularly go down

That world results in a lot of people individually deciding "why buy now, when I can buy for less later" and sitting on their money.

That in aggregate makes the economy much worse.

You're up against human nature here. Money may be an arbitrary numerical denomination of value, but people's behavior around it and how that affects the economy at large need to be accounted for. Having prices slowly creep upwards over time (low inflation) tends to result in more, better things sooner.

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Why do people buy iPhones today knowing that they can get a significant discount in 6-12m for that same iPhone

Because an iphone is a status symbol, and in 6-12m that same iphone won't grant the same status, a newer more expensive one will.

Same applies for Android phones and TVs and most electronics.

The state of tech goods is such that they become obsolete and have a finite lifespan, due to battery and compute needs, as well as the "fashion" element of having the newest thing.

The price is dropping over time because you're getting something literally less valuable. The analogy would be, would you pay the same for a bag of rice expiring in 2 years, as one expiring in 2 months?

The argument you're trying to make, would be valid and convincing if Apple lowered the price of a new iPhone with each subsequent release.

Finite lifespan and batter don't degrade on a new iPhone that happens to be last years model.

The "fashion" element is BS. Almost no one can tell what iPhone is which.

It's literally the same phone now or 6 months from now. It doesn't "expire". You're really stretching here.

Same thing is true for Android and pretty much most electronics or TVs.

Okay, sure, if you don't personally value the things other people value that decrease over time, then it wouldn't make sense for you to buy things at full price.

Other people value those things, and can in fact tell the difference, and thus buy full price iPhones.

>That in aggregate makes the economy much worse.

Does it really? A lot of our problems seem to stem from conspicuous consumption. People will still need things (food shelter clothing) and that will motivate purchasing. "Oh n0es people won't buy flavor of the month consumer garbage, what ever will we do" just doesn't track.

> Does it really?

It does, really.

Conspicuous consumption is a miniscule part of the economy, and for every person whose conspicuous consumption drops, you'll have 5 people who can no longer afford food and shelter.

If you'd like to learn more, I'd encourage you to take an economics class at any local community college. Intro level should teach you about lots of new things including this, much more than you'd learn reading HN comments.

I took multiple econ classes in college. Just because it's in the books doesn't mean it's true. Not to mention some of the books we studied were contributed to by people involved in the interventionist monetary regime. LIRP scooped the guts out of the middle class & handed it to the tech industry and I've seen nothing convincing to the contrary. Expecting everyday people to learn about inflation and manage a portfolio to try and make sure their earnings aren't eroded is borderline class-war. And I'm no socialist.

Did you miss the part in the classes where depressions happened ever decade or two before current policy?

Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. History spent a lot of time being deflationary, and most of that time had abysmal economies for anyone who wasn't nobility.

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