But. If that same schlub belonged to a union that negotiated a cost of living adjustment in his employment contract, as was the case for most factory workers, inflation hardly hurt him at all. (It didn’t necessarily hurt nonunion workers much, either: employers tended to raise wages in concert with the best union contracts, to keep workers from fleeing, or seeking to unionize their workplace, too.) And if that same schlub was paying down a fixed-rate mortgage, he was better off if inflation increased: he had borrowed dollars that were dear, but would pay back the loan with dollars
