In the 1960s, the average salery was $4,743.00 per year. From want ads, in the N.Y. Times, Receptionist : $ 65-80 ( per week ), Clerk-typist : $70-90,TV programer : $125,IBM key punch : $65-90, Dental assistant : $125, and my first job teaching ...$5,700 per year. N.Y.C. apartment rentals ... 5th Ave.,in the 60s,6 room duplex ...$575 ( per month ), Broadway at 72nd St. 2 bedrooms , living room, litchen, dining room, 2 baths ...$200, Park West Village, 2 bedrooms with view of Central Park ...$239, My Great Aunt's HUGE studio apartment, on Central Park South ( very ritzy neighborhood ! ) $100 per month in a RENT CONTROLLED apartment building, my one bedroom, living room, lictchen, one bath, in Greenwich Village ( the West Village ... the nice part ) cost $135.
You can try to make your points; however, facts don't change, no matter how you attempt to juggle and mash them about. Things cost more today, only because you don't adjust the dollar costs. In truth, many things cost less today, than they did in 1965 or even in the 1920s !
As far as housing and other expenses in NYC, the area is its own country with enormous expenses. Anyone would need to be an idiot to live there. Money is worth nothing. Talk to me about Richmond, Cincinatti, Moline, Milwaukee at the time, and it will mean something.
In 1972 I bought a new Ford off the showroom for $3,200 and got bilked royally by the salesman. Try doing that now.