“Never go down in value” means that they are tax payer guaranteed.
Even if the dollars you are given won’t buy a postage stamp, their face value will be greater in the end than the beginning. Yippee!
I took that to mean the bonds are indexed to inflation.
Knowing that the inflation is at hand, as soon as the minimum wage is raised, they have cobbled up a debt instrument that will allow the owner to survive the devaluation of the face value.
What he means is they never go down in face value. 30 years ago you could buy a candy bar for a quarter. Now they cost a dollar. So your matured savings bond is worth exactly 1/4 of it's original value when it is matured.
When I was a kid you could buy that same candy bar for a nickel. Actually I think they were bigger back then.