Put in plain terms since minimum wage in the US labor market is $7.35, $1 USD is “worth” hiring a worker for about 1/7 of an hour. This means that for 1/7th of

Put in plain terms since minimum wage in the US labor market is $7.35, $1 USD is “worth” hiring a worker for about 1/7 of an hour. This means that for 1/7th of an hour you can get some “stuff” done. For instance you could hire someone for 1/7th of an hour to pick 2 apples from your Apple tree so you can have apples with dinner. So really you could say that $1 USD is “worth” 2 apples. This is whole example is so contrived to arrive at a simple point. If we follow your point then the difficulty adds some degree of inflation to the price. I might mine x amount of BTC for y amount of power (hashes) but tomorrow I will be able to mine x-t for y power. This means today's bitcoin is more valuable than tomorrow's bitcoin. There was an awesome derivative allowing people to bet on which might have clarified this difference but sadly it is gone.