system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Has the cost of living gotten higher or do people just live higher?

Usually cost of living is measured with a "basket of goods and services" which changes from year to year. If we applied an old basket to today, what would the cost of living look like?

E.g. the 1950 basket probably has more cigarettes, and less broccoli, than the 2022 basket. 

What if people in 2022 bought the same things as people in 1950?
gpt
It would be very difficult for a 1950 basket to include computers, radio telephones, electric cars, MRI scans, internet services, or even birth control pills.

A 1950's era car would be illegal to sell in the US: leaded gasoline, no passive restraint, no pollution controls. The nearest equivalent would be a gasoline-powered golf cart.

Houses in the 1950s were not (for the most part) very well insulated, so they wasted a lot of energy for heating. However, air conditioning was relatively rare and was often confined to certain rooms. As building codes have gotten stricter, houses use energy more efficiently, but cost more for the same reason.

If one looks at the kind of living arrangements in Brazil or the Philippines, it's possible to get some idea of what live in the US might have been like in the 1950's. Costs in these countries are 1/5th to 1/10th those in the US in dollar terms.