If a random country is in debt, is printing money a good way to pay it off at the expense of the citizens?
For example, lets say you owe an entity $100. If you print an extra $100 bill you pay off your debt, but unbeknownst to the entity the $100 that they lent you is now worth less.
Would the barter system be a good way of combating this?
That's why inflation is considered by some as an invisible tax.
This is completely possible and evident in countries such as Zimbabwe, Germany in the past and countries like Venezuela now. Printing money to pay back old debt at the expense of fiat currency holders, specifically middle income earners is nothing new.
Why does it affect the middle class the most? The poorest hold little currency to begin with while the richest own factors of production, whose value will rise in nominal terms in line with inflation. That's also a reason why I think decentralized cryptos is a good hedge against this phenomena ever happening in your country.
But if the middle class would start to invest in stock companies shouldn't that help a lot with the devaluation of their fiat money ? There is always some kind of path to safe some of your wealth for the long-term.
Lately Germany changed their maximum amount of gold you can buy without identifying yourself to only 2k, there were lines of people in the end of 2019 who were trying to transfer some of their paper money anonymously to some gold coins.
The regular inflation is "okayish", because you don't really notice it immediately. It is like the boiled frog, who just never jumps out until he is cocked.