Your comparison about a new 1970s car to today’s price is not an apples to apples comparison. Consider how different they are in features, electronics, safety features (air bags?), mandated fuel efficiency, steel vs plastic, etc. All added cost. There are other factors beyond the cost to build ... including the fact that getting people to borrow in order to “own” a car increases car sticker prices. Also, dollar devaluation over time means that it takes more dollars to buy the same thing, all other factors unchanged.
But consider this in your thinking about whether $15/hr is the right number, or should the minimum wage be changed at all:
Current federal $7.25/hr = in place since 2009 or 2010. I did the following calculation:
Minimum Wage Valued in 2020 dollars
2010 ($7.25/hr) = 2020 ($8.59)
1976 ($2.30/hr) = 2020 ($10.45)
1968 ($1.60/hr) = 2020 ($11.89)
1956 ($1.00/hr) = 2020 ($9.50)
1938 ($0.25/hr) = 2020 ($4.58).
It interesting on how low the 1938 adjusted minimum wage was. Using that number as a benchmark, Today’s minimum wage earners being overpaid!?!?!?! And they may be eligible for all sorts of welfare benefits that are not figured into their wages!!! Guess what will happen to the income thresholds for welfare benefits after the minimum wage increases?
Also, the average price of a gallon of gas in 1938 was $0.20/gal; in 2010 = $2.79/gal; in 2020 = $2.25/gal.
Therefore,
1938 (1 gal/min wage) = 0.80
2010 (1 gal / min wage) = 0.38
2020 (1 gal / min wage) = 0.31.
IOW, in 1938 it took 0.8 of 1 hour minimum wage labor to buy a gallon of gas. In 2020 it only took 0.31 hr. Hence, for this one commodity upon that people consume and powers the economy, it looks like the minimum wage earner has done quite well.
The bottom line is that increasing the minimum wage will benefit only the giverment. A bigger financial issues are the continuing devaluation of US currency, excessive US borrowing, and upcoming national debt crisis. Arguing $15/hr with people is useless, they aren’t interested ...it’s ignorance and high emotion. After it passes, and all the bad things happen in the economy as predicted, no one will be accountable, ...there will be further efforts to get the giverment to fix the problem that the givernment created and continues to perpetuate.
I’m going to have to bow to your clearly superior mathematics. Neither art or math were subjects I was at all comfortable with. Especially math. I did get along well with time speed distance calculations, which as a pilot are necessary survival skills.
That said, the unintended consequences of a change in the minimum wage make it worth not tinkering with in my opinion.