[makomk]

This kind of gets at the problem: "the 1998 ad doesn't have 32" TVs and the modern website doesn't have 27" TVs in stock". We're not talking about everyone being able to afford a better TV than before; instead, the TV size at each price and quality tier has gone up over time and people get that size whether they want it or not. A 21" TV used to be a good size for a main set, by around a decade ago you could get a 32" set of reasonable quality for a reasonable price but the 21" ones were bargin-basement with poor picture and sound quality, fast forward to today and 32" are all budget options degraded to the same poor quality (and the same resolution) as 21" ones a decade earlier, with anything smaller a niche product offering poor value. Last I heard 52" was the current tier with good-quality TVs and 42" had already started the quality slide compared to what used to be available in that size.

Also, there's a really obvious reason to think that 1998's 50" TV was not worth $1500 in raw, unadjusted dollars to the vast majority of people: almost no-one bought it at that price. In theory this principle applies to every item that used to be available with both cheaper and more expensive options but now only has the option which is more expensive: that improvement is worth less to people than the price difference when they both used to be available, or there wouldn't have been a market for the cheaper option back then.