State Senator Rob Sampson

State Senator Rob Sampson

6 days ago

Sharing another constituent email and my reply. This time the subject is inflation. Enjoy.

To Senator Rob Sampson

I have been hearing and watching an overwhelming amount of inflation, hearing multiple sources and reasons for why it is the way it is. But I can't quite understand why inflation should even exist. There isn't a value of the dollar other than what we assign to it, I've heard it's supposed to represent the amount of gold in the federal reserve but I don't believe we use that, and the entire point of gold is that it never changes in value. So why do dollars lose value? We continuously ramp prices up but not paychecks and for what? We are the consumers, so this ends up at a 50 year cashgrab leaving only the upper class being able to afford anything. The dollar has an assigned value and by lowering it because we made more just doesn't make sense. Using digital accounts you can theoretically go infinitely into debt (America as an example) so if we have infinite money already why should it lose value. As we move more to digital, for better or worse, why should we keep producing physical money if it only decreases the value for no reason. It is a price of paper that we are lowering so we can have more. This all boils down to rich people and certain governments cutting the value to fit more in their pockets leaving less for lower classes. I'm not able to find clear answers for this and I doubt if there is a perfect answer but I still would like to hear a viewpoint of someone in power.

and my reply:

Dear XXXXX,

Thank you for writing and for putting real thought into your question. These are exactly the kinds of conversations we should be having, especially with young people who are feeling the effects of inflation firsthand. You are right that there is no single perfect answer. Economics is messy because people and governments are messy. But there are clear truths worth understanding.

At its core, inflation is simple. It is the decline in the value of money. When the dollar becomes weaker, prices rise not because everything suddenly got more valuable, but because the dollars we are using to buy things are worth less.

You are also right that the U.S. dollar is no longer backed by gold. Today, its value rests on trust, discipline, and restraint. When governments abandon restraint, when they spend far more than they collect and create money to cover the difference, that trust breaks down. More dollars chasing the same goods means each dollar buys less. That is inflation.

What we have experienced over the past few years is not accidental. The Biden administration printed a mountain of new money to fund massive federal spending programs far beyond anything backed by real economic growth. That flood of newly created dollars sharply devalued the currency. Print money, weaken the dollar, and working people pay the price. That is exactly what happened.

There is another important idea embedded in your question that is worth addressing directly. You are implicitly assuming that wealth is a fixed pie, meaning if some people have more, others must have less. That is a very common belief, but it is not how economics actually works.

In a free and growing economy, wealth is created, not redistributed. When someone builds a business, invents a product, improves efficiency, or provides a valuable service, they do not take wealth from others. They create new value that did not previously exist. That is how living standards rise over time. The reason people today live better than people fifty or one hundred years ago is not because wealth was shuffled around more fairly, but because freedom, innovation, and markets created more of it.

Inflation breaks that process. It does not create wealth. It distorts it.

Here is the hard truth. Inflation is not just a side effect of bad policy. It is often used deliberately as a mechanism to steal wealth. By devaluing the currency, governments reduce the real value of savings, wages, and fixed incomes while making their own massive debts easier to manage. People who did everything right, who worked, saved, and planned responsibly, find their purchasing power quietly siphoned away. That is not an accident. It is a transfer.

That is why inflation is sometimes called a hidden tax. Nobody votes for it, but everyone pays it.

At the state level, inflationary pressure is made worse by Democratic majorities that continue to raise spending, expand government mandates, and artificially drive up labor costs. Policies like Connecticut’s nearly eighteen dollar minimum wage do not create wealth. They raise costs. Businesses respond with higher prices, fewer jobs, or fewer opportunities for young and entry level workers. Once again, those trying hardest to get ahead take the hit.

I also want to be very clear about my own record. I have served in the Connecticut legislature for fifteen years, and during that entire time I have never voted for a tax increase or a spending increase. I have consistently opposed the very policies that fuel inflation and undermine opportunity. I am not part of the problem, and I never have been.

Your instinct that something is deeply wrong is absolutely correct. Where I would respectfully challenge you is on the cause. This is not a failure of markets or individual freedom. It is a failure of government restraint. Historically, inflation has been a tool of large, overreaching governments to cover bad decisions, expand control, and quietly redistribute wealth. That is why it so often accompanies collectivist and socialist systems.

The alternative is not radical. It is time tested.

Limited and accountable government
Sound fiscal policy
Equal rules for everyone
Opportunity built on freedom, not dependency

That is why I fight the battles I do every day. Young people deserve a future where hard work actually pays off, where saving makes sense, and where the American Dream is built through opportunity rather than eroded by debt and inflation.

I genuinely appreciate your question and your willingness to think critically. Keep asking them. We need more of that.

Respectfully,

Senator Rob Sampson

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