In 1953 IBM launched one of the first commercial computers, which your parents definitely didn't have in their home on account of it costing $15k per month to rent access to. Rent has gone up relative to everything else because the housing supply hasn't grown fast enough, but the average person today has gadgets and treatments which were unfeasible in 1953

Generally an inflation index tracks the basic necessities of life: housing, gas, electricity, food, wood, industrial/building materials etc. The percentage of income spent on those basic life requirements has been on an upward trend for many many decades. Real wages don't rise faster than inflation. The next generation is on track to earn half as much purchasing power than us. Expect multi generational homes to make a big comeback.

Real wage growth is by definition the portion of wage growth that outstrips inflation, and there has been measurable wage growth rather than shrinkage since 1950, even though it's a lot flatter at the bottom half of the distribution than the top. We've seen a massive growth in and overseas shift of the workforce over that time too. I don't think there's anything in the data to support the claim 'the next generation is on track to earn half as much purchasing power than us'.

And moving back to the original point, the reason why homes capture a larger share of incomes than before is down to the supply of homes outstripping demand, not the loss of the gold standard. If the supply of dollars were fixed as deflationistas advocate, you wouldn't lose the market pressure on housing, just the wage increases and incentives for people already holding large pieces of the pie to invest in something riskier than housing...

Googling found a wide range of figures for 1953 US GDP.

One said $2449[0], one said $9573[1] and one said $16499[2] in chained 2012 dollars.

Computing the figures from the Census's 20th century data[3] supports the $2449 as the current-dollar figure.

[0] https://countryeconomy.com/gdp/usa?year=1953

[1] https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/GDP-...

[2] https://www.multpl.com/us-real-gdp-per-capita/table/by-year

[3] https://www.census.gov/prod/99pubs/99statab/sec31.pdf

[0] and [3] are current-dollar (i.e. not inflation adjusted). Easy to calculate, but rather difficult to evaluate (in terms of purchasing power) with a figure 60 years later.

[2] is inflation adjusted. Methodologies for that can vary quite a bit (other inflation adjustment sites give a value >$20K) but the result is a more meaningful comparison.

I have no idea what [1] is supposed to be, and they don't seem to be giving any sources or listing any methodology.

They were fortunate. NYC rents at that time were like $40-60/month, with a cheap apartment like that being a tenament.