Inflation measures are supposed to control for improvement in product quality & quantity so that you can represent the GDP of 1852 in 2018 dollar terms.... In 1

Inflation measures are supposed to control for improvement in product quality & quantity so that you can represent the GDP of 1852 in 2018 dollar terms.... In 1993, a macbook pro would have been very valuable. If you have a time machine with 20 laptops in the boot, that's enough to let you live like Biff in the almanac timeline. Does that mean anyone with a macbook is a millionaire in 1992 dollars? This is not a solvable problem. It works ok for YoY inflation (that's the point) but, the phrase '2018 dollars' gets meaningless as we try to represent earlier years. Saying we are n% more wealthy than people in 1300, is just cheesy journalism mostly. Anyway (long preamble, sorry).... Just like trying to adjust inflation by 70 or 700 years is difficult, trying to account for hours worked and/leisure is difficult. Too much has changed. Woman joined the workforce. Children left it. Work got homework added. Training became more of a leisure time activity. Commutes got longer. Lunches got longer. The first one is probably the biggest. Btw there's an illustrative thread running through both... Childcare and elder care. These were done at home (mostly by women) as non economic activity. Now these are jobs. The generate GDP, work hours... But, children were being raised before. They are being raised now. It just didn't used to be counted as GDP/work hours.