The problem with cash isn’t volatility. It’s certainty.
Cash is not worthless.
But it is structurally disadvantaged in the world we now live in.
For most of modern history, holding cash made sense.
- Inflation was episodic, not permanent.
- Currencies were periodically reset.
- Savings actually preserved purchasing power.
That world ended quietly.
Today’s monetary system is designed around permanent expansion.
Governments run chronic deficits.
Central banks intervene preemptively.
Money supply growth is no longer a response to crises — it is the baseline.
The result isn’t hyperinflation.
It’s something more subtle and more effective.
Prices don’t double overnight.
They creep.
Costs are fragmented across:
- Subscriptions instead of one-time purchases
- Fees instead of prices
- Insurance premiums instead of direct expenses
- Financing instead of ownership
Your money still looks intact.
It just commands less real life.
This is why inflation feels confusing instead of violent.
Wages rise slowly and visibly.
Costs rise asynchronously and invisibly.
So people don’t revolt.
They adjust.
They downgrade.
They delay.
They normalize.
Cash didn’t fail because it collapsed.
It failed because policy ensured it could never collapse — only erode.
That’s why sophisticated capital doesn’t “sit” in cash anymore.
It uses cash tactically, not defensively.
Cash is liquidity.
Assets are preservation.
Mistaking one for the other is how people stay busy but fall behind.
