I agree, prudence is always in order and after thinking about my response it may have appeared I was promoting debt. Nothing could be further from the truth. Debt always has to be evaluated for each individual purchase to see if it makes sense and each individual potential borrower has a different comfort level handling debt.

My original intent was to simply state that an inflationary environment tends to favor borrowers and a deflationary environment tends to favor those with savings. A lot has to do with what real interest rates are in each of those situations also. If interest rates are artificially low in an inflationary environment, it favors the borrower and penalizes the saver even more. An environment of money maintaining its value, neither inflationary nor deflationary, is closer to a level playing field, and in my opinion what would be desirable and best for society overall.

Some argue that we need some inflation to stimulate business and create growth. I would argue by asking this question: What do we want, good to excellent growth and a boom period followed by a bust, or slow but steady growth based on real and steady values? Artificially low interest rates for many years have created a boom with numerous bubbles that have burst. Low interest rates have encouraged borrowing and consumption beyond what the economy could sustain. At least that is my opinion. Many do not think that way.

All I have ever known during my lifetime, with the exception of short periods, has been inflation. I don't know, maybe I could not handle money being sound and maintaining its value LOL. I have probably been the beneficiary of inflation over the years and it might be hard for me to adjust to a different environment.

John