Yes, we should account for technological improvements in the quality of our lives. In fact, it's the only way to have long-term improvement in real, appropriately measured consumption. And yes, there are creature comforts you can buy today that were darn near impossible back then.

But ... you need to weight these improvements by relative impact. Yes, TVs are better. But how much utility they can really add to your life is limited. They're little comfort when the important things -- like not being bankrupted by health care costs -- eat up all the rest.

If you buy too much into the importance of better TVs, you end up like Fed banker William Dudley, and insist that living costs went down, even as every bill went up, because iPads are faster.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-dudley-ipad-idUST...