Living wage conclusions

Tax, Tort, Regulatory and monetary reform as long with ending subsidies needs to be brought up whenever the minimum wage is discussed especially when someone make the claim that it in fact was relatively higher.
When someone makes the claim it was someplace between 30% and 300% higher in 1968- it is vital to ask the simple question why the did the real value drop with out a decrease in unemployment?
I have seen many people state the reason was greed- the problem is this would be like the FAA blaming a plane crash on gravity- which was constant through the entire flight.
Colonel Sanders, Ray Kroc, Dave Thomas and every other business man will naturally look at how to maximize their profits - that is simply the nature of business, so I try to look at what has changed since the late 1960's or if they bring up Australia- what is different between both nations.
Your standard of living is not based on how much money you have in your pocket- rather it is completely based on what you can buy with that money and that in turn is based on society's productivity levels and competition.
A good example of this is to simply think about the quality of life has changed over the course of the past few centuries.
Next it is important to remember there is no such thing as a free lunch - in life there are always trade offs and  Failure to understand this fact is magical thinking which is doomed to fail.
This is the reason that I ask everyone who wants to see a $15 minimum wage  especially if they site the the US in the past or Australia- why are prices so high in the modern US?
I don't expect CEO's to cut their own pay but instead- reduce hours for those people the increase would effect, decrease quality and increase prices so the value of $1 would drop so that the quality of life you could afford on $15 would be a lot closer to what you can currently afford on $8 today.
I don't pretend that there might not be any negative side effects for ending subsidies and conducting the forms.  I just claim they will affect fewer people and be over quicker.
I am not saying we should toss every regulation out- I am though saying we should look at costs and benefits because Australia might just be proof that it will result in drastic price cuts with reasonable environmental and safety standards.