Regardless of the number of choices that we appear to have, it doesn’t matter if the real choices are ultimately made through other means (e.g. lobbyists in the US).
I stopped using q tips and had so much wax buildup that I could barely hear out of my ear. Was a terrible week or so before I finally got it cleared with a softener and water administered through a flared syringe. I went right back to using q tips as I had for decades before. All it takes is a bit of sweeping at the entrance of my ears for me to avoid that crazy buildup, so it’s well worth it.
That’s assuming deflation was the cause of that instead of simply being a symptom of the collapse of the financial system. Also, in a deflationary environment, money sitting in a savings account wouldn’t necessarily collect interest, in fact the interest rate for a savings account could even be negative. Either way, a healthy investment environment would provide much greater returns than a 2% increase in value of money sitting in an account. Consumers continuing to buy things means there are clear business opportunities.
I know what the idea is, but is it actually true in practice? If the rate of deflation was, say, 2%, who would actually hoard cash just because it’d be supposedly worth 2% more? I highly doubt customers would, especially since it’s not like businesses would automatically cut prices by 2%. As for businesses, why would they hoard that cash when they can make investments that would increase the amount of cash they have? Surely, if a 2% increase in value was so worth hoarding cash, why aren’t they all just hoarding cash into interest-paying accounts that pay 4% in a 2% inflation environment? Constant inflation has been the prevailing theory, but it doesn’t mean it’s the optimal setup.