this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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Explain Like I'm Five

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Why can't inflation be stopped by just printing less money? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by IndigoGollum@lemmy.world to c/explainlikeimfive@lemmy.world
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I understand that money needs to continually be printed as bills and coins are damaged or lost, but wouldn't any currency be way more stable if it was just printed slower than it's taken out of circulation?

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[–] Steve 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Even coins themselves have no inherent value. That's why they are used as coins, they aren't useful for anything else.

Before electricity became popular, pennies were made of copper. After electricity made copper inherently valuable, people started melting down pennies and using the copper for an actually valuable purpose.

Even gold has little inherent value. That's why people buy it just to let it sit on a shelf doing nothing. There isn't anything more practically valuable they could do with it.