Things just don’t really convert neatly because the shape of what people spend money on in life hasn’t evolved uniformly.

Food appears somewhat cheaper, housing much cheaper; but clothing and tools/appliances were much more expensive. Things like student debt and healthcare costs are also interesting to compare and wildly differ over time & place.

Also common for the average middle class person to spend a sizable percentage of their income on travel/vacation today; as I understand it that was quite uncommon before the mid 20th century.

I use "super-baskets" like say US GDP per capita

>The June 1940 photograph along Hwy 1 in Maryland had $0.05 hotdogs ($1.17) and $0.10 burgers ($2.34).

1940 $779 to today's $94K GDP per capita gives $6 for the 1940 $0.05 hotdog.