[sparky]

Wealth != Inflation-adjusted dollars.

You can buy many things for $100 today that would have cost $5000 in 1985 (or more likely, that didn't exist at all). Life's necessities, with the important exception of homes and apartments, have gotten cheaper in inflation-adjusted dollars over time.

I'd argue that the truest measure of wealth is the distribution of 'happiness' over a population, but that opens so many cans of worms as to be near-useless. I'm guessing the average happiness has decreased over time, but I wouldn't chalk all that up to a decrease in inflation-adjusted dollars.

[mixmax]

The things you mention are what inflation is meant to nullify. In an economists perfect world the amount of a normal good you can buy with $1 would be the same as the amount of that good you could buy for 1 inflation-adjusted dollar at any other time in history.

[sparky]

You're right, an inflation-adjusted dollar should buy some fixed fraction of e.g. a loaf of bread at any time in history. It's just such a multidimensional space that any one number is bound to leave out some pretty crucial information as to how much money a given person needs to be happy.