Gold is the same. In 1920, an ounce of gold would by a really nice new mans suit, complete with hat, shirt, and tie. 25 ounces would buy a new Ford car. Today, an ounce of gold will still buy a new mans suit, and for 25 ounces, you can buy a new car.
Most people do not know the difference between money and wealth. Money is just an IOU (it says so right on the bill... a note is an IOU). Wealth is what you can buy with money, but the amount of wealth you can buy for dollars is constantly decreasing.
Its true that in China, wages (money) is much lower than in the US, but the cost of wealth is also much lower in China.
Liberals want to raise the minimum wage (increase money) purportedly to raise the standard of living for lower wage earners. Thats a great idea except it doesn't work.
One of the laws of economics is that the total amount of money in the system is the exact amount required to buy all of the goods and services (wealth).
Another is that the cost of goods is directly and almost completely dependant on the minimum wage.
Raw materials are free. The cost to purchase raw materials is the labor costs of mining it, transporting it, refining it, taxes, and royalties to the mineral rights owner.
When the minimum wage is raised, everyone gets a raise no matter how high they are on the wage scale. For example, assume the minimum wage is now $8 and its raised to $12. The people who were making $9 get a raise too, but they are unhappy because they were making more than minimum wage, and suddenly are at minimum wage again; so they demand and get a raise to above minimum wage. Then there is the management people who might have been making $13. Are they going to be pissed off? Of course, and they will also get a raise. This goes up all the way to the CEO.
The effect is that the cost of all labor skyrockets, increasing the amount of money in the system. Apply rule 1, and the cost of goods goes up for EVERYONE!. The net affect is that people on minimum wage get a raise, but can buy no more wealth than before, IF they still have a job.
The only people who actually benefit are the Chinese and the government. This moves people into higher tax brackets, and Chinese goods are even cheaper than before relatively.
With American goods even more expensive, our trade imbalance becomes even more worse.
All of this happens because few people understand the difference between money and wealth.