Of course, as I said that wouldn't be practical. But the problem is that salary generally lags inflation with the effect being larger the higher inflation is. Even if it didn't, that wouldn't change the impact inflation has on savings, particularly for those on a fixed income. A dollar simply saved for retirement 30 years ago would be worth a fraction today of what it was...even with the pitiful interest a savings account might give you.
It isn't good enough to simply save, you have to wisely invest and hope not to get unlucky. I suppose if you truly want to "save" vs. "invest" then gold is still your best bet. Because of inflation, dollars are only a medium of exchange and not really a vehicle for storing wealth (or a poor one anyway). Unfortunately, I don't think that becomes obvious to most people soon enough.
It's funny, I remember some stories a while back about having some sort of national digital currency (this may have been in China or somewhere else, i don't remember where) that is designed to decrease in value the longer you hold it so that it would force you to spend it. People were pretty horrified by the idea. But that's exactly how fiat is used today...it's just a little more subtle.
Anyway, I think I got off point. My main point was that as much as technology has improved our lives, I'm not sure that it has really relieved inflation or made affording life any easier. A new technology comes along that is at first an expensive luxury and eventually becomes a cheap(er) necessity. But you didn't used to need it at all.
To build off your example of long distance, cell phones are a good example of what I'm talking about. 40 years ago nobody had one, 30 years ago they were around but service was expensive and the vast majority of people didn't really need one. 20 years ago most people had one and it was becoming a necessity or at least a luxury so beneficial that the price was worth it...if you could afford it (and of course it had gotten cheaper to have one). Now, it's hard to live in the modern world without one (though I work with a guy that still refuses to get one). It used to be a single home landline was sufficient. Now, if you have a family of four, you need four separate cell phones and a service plan to cover them all. Better in a lot of ways maybe, but not cheaper.
Of course, as I said that wouldn't be practical. But the problem is that salary generally lags inflation with the effect being larger the higher inflation is. Even if it didn't, that wouldn't change the impact inflation has on savings, particularly for those on a fixed income. A dollar simply saved for retirement 30 years ago would be worth a fraction today of what it was...even with the pitiful interest a savings account might give you.
It isn't good enough to simply save, you have to wisely invest and hope not to get unlucky. I suppose if you truly want to "save" vs. "invest" then gold is still your best bet. Because of inflation, dollars are only a medium of exchange and not really a vehicle for storing wealth (or a poor one anyway). Unfortunately, I don't think that becomes obvious to most people soon enough.
It's funny, I remember some stories a while back about having some sort of national digital currency (this may have been in China or somewhere else, i don't remember where) that is designed to decrease in value the longer you hold it so that it would force you to spend it. People were pretty horrified by the idea. But that's exactly how fiat is used today...it's just a little more subtle.
Anyway, I think I got off point. My main point was that as much as technology has improved our lives, I'm not sure that it has really relieved inflation or made affording life any easier. A new technology comes along that is at first an expensive luxury and eventually becomes a cheap(er) necessity. But you didn't used to need it at all.
To build off your example of long distance, cell phones are a good example of what I'm talking about. 40 years ago nobody had one, 30 years ago they were around but service was expensive and the vast majority of people didn't really need one. 20 years ago most people had one and it was becoming a necessity or at least a luxury so beneficial that the price was worth it...if you could afford it (and of course it had gotten cheaper to have one). Now, it's hard to live in the modern world without one (though I work with a guy that still refuses to get one). It used to be a single home landline was sufficient. Now, if you have a family of four, you need four separate cell phones and a service plan to cover them all. Better in a lot of ways maybe, but not cheaper.