I think it's pretty obvious that this was meant as a joke; conflating something that depreciates with time (e.g., 1950 dollars vs. 2016 dollars) with something

I think it's pretty obvious that this was meant as a joke; conflating something that depreciates with time (e.g., 1950 dollars vs. 2016 dollars) with something that does not, but shows a similar effect for other reasons (e.g., improvements in medicine). I thought it was pretty funny.