It could perhaps be restated that deflation causes people to invest their money wisely and weigh the risks and rewards, whereas inflation causes people to chase rewards just to maintain their current wealth or underestimate risk to try and grow their investments.<p>Inflation fundamentally is just stealing from people by devaluing their earnings, and it hurts the poor and the middle class the most. It encourages people to take on debts, since they will pay back less in the future.  It also hurts anyone who gets paid by the hour or salary when they're not tied to inflation.