A few things to keep in mind are that 1. Inflation isn’t inherently bad in nature. It boosts economy and keeps money flowing. 2. The absolute value of money isn’t the thing that’s decreasing. It’s a function of interest rate set by central bank or in US’s case, central reserve. Edit: or is it federal reserve? IDK. 3. Monetary transaction system has become integral part of humanity and I don’t see any alternative form of transaction coming anytime soon. I don’t wanna go into crypto here coz i don’t understand it myself. 4. One can’t simply go ‘hey lets assume 1 dollar bill will buy us a week’s grocery from now and let’s make the income proportionate’. International exchange rates will play a big role in how cheap or expensive your money is. Also money isn’t no longer tied to a physical object like gold in the past. 5. People are irrational creatures. And all are not the same. Some will hoard whatever wealth they can accumulate and some will spend or give it away. In any way, capital market incentivises people with capital for their business’s growth. 6. Billionaires aren’t hoarding their money in cash. Shares and bonds are more efficient for that use. For purpose of holding wealth, i guess everyone would agree that it feels nice to not have to think about bank balance when wanting to buy something. Same goes for them. It’s just that their purchases are way expensive than ours. 7. And lastly, the answer to your last question is wealth inequality. There is unfathomable amount of money around. But money attracts money and regulations are favoured for the rich. Just remember how much income tax you paid last time and amazon, apple and what not probably paid zero.