I remember when a can of Coke was 25 cents. My parents could buy candy for a penny! Today you might pay a dollar for a soda, and nothing costs a penny. So what happened? Inflation, that's what. Inflation is often called "too many dollars chasing too few goods." It's when prices in a country rise across the board. If your favorite snack gets a bit more expensive, that's not inflation. But when the price of your snack, bread, sugar, gasoline, and many other things all rise at the same time, that's inflation. Inflation means your money buys less than it used to. Experts have different views on why and how inflation happens. One reason for inflation is an increase in the supply of money. Generally, when the supply of something goes up, the demand for it goes down. In other words, its value goes down. So when there is a lot of money circulating, each piece of money becomes less valuable. Another cause of inflation is a rise in production costs. This means it costs more money to make a particular product. The price of a candy bar may go up if the nuts in it are suddenly more expensive or if the workers making it are paid higher wages. Higher taxes can also cause inflation. When items are taxed, people who produce goods don't want to see their profits go down. Instead, they raise their prices. This is called "transferring the burden to the consumer." It means that producers make the same in profits, and the people buying the products are the ones who suffer. Inflation is complicated. Track the prices of some goods you are interested in, and see if you can understand why they've changed over time.
我記得以前一瓶可樂只要25 分錢，我父母親那一輩可以用一分錢買到糖果吃！現在一罐汽水可能就要價一塊美金，而沒有任何東西是花一分錢能買到的。到底發生了什麼事？ 這就是所謂的「通貨膨脹」。「當現金太多而商品不足」常被稱為通貨膨脹。此時，一個國家的市場價格會全面地攀升。如果你最喜愛的點心稍微漲了一點價時，那不算通膨。但當所有的點心、麵包、糖、石油和各類商品都齊聲上漲時，那就叫做通貨膨脹。通貨膨脹意味著同樣的金錢只能買到比以前少的商品。 專家對於通膨的起因和形成的方式莫衷一是。其中一項因素是金錢的供應增加了。一般來說，當某物的供應增加時，其需求就會下降。換句話說，這項物品的價值就變低了。所以當有許多金錢流通時，每塊現金就變得更不值錢。 另一項引起通膨的因素是商品價格的攀升，也就是說生產某項商品需要花費更高的成本。一條點心棒的價格，可能會因為裡頭的堅果突然變貴，或是生產的勞工薪資上漲而提高。 較高的稅金也可能造成通貨膨脹。當產品被課稅時，製造商不希望看到利潤下降，於是便調高售價。這種行為被稱為「成本轉嫁消費者」。這意味著製造商獲得同樣的利潤，而消費者卻成了冤大頭。 通貨膨脹十分複雜，試著追蹤幾項令你感興趣的商品價格，看看你是否能了解這些價格隨著時間改變的原因。
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