GDP per capita is a poor measure of general wellbeing since it doesn't account for changes in the cost of living and is skewed by funny business in stock markets.
Real GDP is supposed to account for that with the GDP deflator. Whether it actually does or not is a different story since I'm not knowledgable to know the details of that calculation, but I agree with your sentiment. Per-capita GDP has nothing to do with wealth distribution and with a depreciating currency, those at the bottom get the short end of the stick.
As with most calculations in Keynesian economics, it doesn't take into account the devaluation of the monetary unit, at best it only looks at CPI which is extremely misleading. CPI is misleading because it doesn't consider the devaluation of the basket of goods - it assumes they've stayed the same value - and it completely ignores hard assets like housing even though that's something everyone wants to buy.
Money supply expansion (total debt), or price increases of hard assets is a much better indicator of devaluation of the monetary unit, but that doesn't provide the figures they want the public to see.
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Henry Ford
Real GDP uses CPI as a correction factor making it highly misleading.
CPI is thoroughly flawed. It doesn't take into account that consumables are actually falling in value by 5%/year due to ever increasing efficiencies of production, and it only includes a carefully selected basket of goods which notably doesn't include hard assets like real estate. It's algorithm is even changed through years and if we use algorithms from previous decades, they produce much higher figures.
It completely ignores the fact that the fiat currencies are devalued through money supply inflation (the real inflation)
