Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/109

3] merely nominal; for while current prices would quickly be doubled the terms of contracts already made would not be adjusted. Therefore every creditor, every bondholder, every bank depositor, would clearly be cheated out of half his due.

If, on the other hand. Congress should decree that what has hitherto been a "dollar" should henceforth be fifty cents, every debtor would be suddenly saddled with a weight of debt twice as heavy as that which he had originally assumed.

In either case incalculable injustice would be wrought. One of the parties to every contract would be swindled for the benefit of the other; and the swindle would affect the fortunes for good or ill of almost every family in the land.

Now this same principle of hardship applies to any change in the purchasing power of the dollar.

It does not in the least matter whether the change is intentional. Moreover, it cannot properly be said that, for an unintentional change, there is no human responsibility. We, the people, neglect the problem, and therefore Congress which, under the Constitution, has the power to regulate the value of money, neglects it also. Consequently, with each change in the purchasing power of money (in other words, with each change in the price level), some people lose what properly belongs to them and others gain what does not properly belong to them.

Nor does the injustice stop with actual outstanding contracts enforcible by legal process. There are many charges which remain fixed from mere custom or