[DEBATE] How much of a role do you think monetary policy plays in the wealth disparity?

Mediocre personal finance guy that normally lurks here, but saw a "study" posted about how raising interest rates is not as bad as people say. It was claiming that Republicans have been arguing to lower them while Democrats "say it's not a good time" and that raising rates is not as bad because the math shows the average person only pays an additional $150 per month on their debt.<br><br>I have so many problems with this type of study it's not even funny.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>For example, if you have $200,000 worth of debt and your interest rate is 7% and the fed raises it by 1% you're actually looking at $2,000.00 of increased debt over the course of a year.<br><br>Additionally, the interest rate is not the same as the inflation rate, but it's very directly tied. When the fed raises interest rates, it's because they want to create less money. It does this by removing the profit motive for giving loans. Less loans, less money. But it doesn't actually remove money. It just removes the borrowing capacity. This is also money that isn't going into circulation and isn't being used to hire people for jobs. So people actually end up with the same amount of money, but the prices of things cost more.<br><br>So now you have people with thousands of dollars more in debt every year and the cost of living is increasing. This seems like a pretty good recipe for furthering the wealth gap to me.<br><br>I'm imagining the only thing that could really be claimed is that the wealthy always make money, but that's not exactly the best solution.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>PS: The study also mentioned the national debt. That's a whole other topic, but I'm not sure Republicans have ever actually cared about it. They want the economy to grow, so they give massive tax cuts while also increasing spending. The net result is always a massive deficit.<br><br>&#x200B;