Inflation seems to be a relatively new thing in economics, only being a major concern since about 1940.
Looking at [this UK Currency graph](https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmonevator.com%2Fa-history-of-uk-inflation%2F&psig=AOvVaw2m1_C7lFBlK_s-ePJDySaV&ust=1691140545682000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBAQjRxqFwoTCOCx8s2TwIADFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ) or [this US graph](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/50060e33c4aa3dba773634ec/1464789250138-XL20G32RKBAYP87JGP74/image-asset.png), inflation/deflation was not a continuous thing until the modern era.
Is this because of fractional reserve banking, or constant government deficits in both countries? Or both? What changed in economic policy – perhaps the funding required for modern government programs?
Or perhaps this effect isn’t as new as I perceive – at least in the case of the United States. [This graph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/US_Historical_Inflation_Ancient.svg/1200px-US_Historical_Inflation_Ancient.svg.png) shows inflation and deflation to be evident in the past, but they balanced: so why don’t they now?
Surely an idealised society wants very little inflation, maybe around 0.5%, just enough to allow for debt to deflate and ‘incentivise investment’, but nowhere near as much as today’s salary-eroding amounts.
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Your own graph tells the story. The US inflation rate has already peaked and is on the decline.
The peak in 2022 was NOWHERE near the peaks of the 70’s and 80’s (going back 200 years is not really useful comparing an agrarian economy where booms and busts are mostly due to the weather that year affecting food production).
The Fed (and many central banks) were trying to INCREASE inflation (not really but ELI5) for most of the 2010’s.
One of the issues is that most people under 40 today have actually never experienced anything resembling inflation of the past. And 6 months of it being elevated in 2022 and they feel that the world is crashing down on them.
What you think of as “salary eroding” would be considered mostly average 40-50 years ago.
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