Gold and American Family Wealth Contrasted

In 1971, America went off the Gold standard. Previously the dollar was fixed at $35 dollars per ounce of gold.
http://economics.about.com/cs/money/a/gold_standard.htm

In 1970, the average American family’s income was about $9,900.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/f07ar.html

So, in 1970, your family income was worth roughly around 280 ounces of gold.

Today, Gold is trading at about $1,000 an ounce. But let’s say that is inflated due to fear. So let’s use $700/ an ounce.

The average family now makes about $60,000 dollars a year, or about 85 ounces of gold.

So by the gold standard, American family income today is about 30% of what it was in 1970.

I know it is way more complicated than that, as modern manufacturing techniques and economies of scale have brought the price of goods dramatically down, but none the less I think the above figure shows that American currency is rapidly deflating, which in turn is draining the average American family’s real buying power.