Or cellular phones, computers, refrigeration, microwaves, electricity, AC and a thousand other things that only rich people used to be able to afford.

Just about any luxury of the rich that can be produced more efficiently over time makes its way to the average consumer.

Out of the loop here, what were the big issues with early 4K TVs?

That represents an income of at least $70,000/year, assuming only the standard deduction and single. If you are married, it's closer to $100,000 income. That puts you at the 62th and 77th percentile, at a minimum to get the full tax deduction.

>I'm not sure I'd consider that rich.

People who are installing $40,000+ roofs on 2000+ sqft homes are not rich by your standards? Or do you truly believe these panels will "print money"?

Even if your taxes aren't that high you can roll the remainder of the credit forward to next year.

Because that disconnects the company from actual demand.

Production of early versions is always more expensive because of the research & development, creation/configuration of the machines, etc, etc but the marginal cost goes down drastically. The numbers work out even better as you can amortize those early costs over a larger and larger production run. This means v2 and later editions are cheaper.

It's text book "economies of scale"

I would also say that Rich people pave the way for adaption.

For example, look at prices of flights. Before there was no "first class" everything was first class, now there are cabin options.

While that example is a service, more proliferation of service == wider adaption == increased scale of economies == eventually prices come down for everyone.

Why not just do unit tests instead of integration tests? Because you want to create a system that provides feedback on the entire end to end process. You subsidize purchases because The thing you want to incentivize is not making solar panels, but bringing solar panels all the way to market. You are trying to get the market off the ground, not just the technology.

That wouldn’t account for demand.

They have to make the sale this way

>The masses don't own houses to put these roofs on

Is this based off an SV mindset? There are plenty of homeowners that aren't rich around the country.

Plus less pollution in the air helps the masses too, with fewer health issues and less extreme weather on a long term basis.

>The masses don't own houses to put these roofs on.

64% of Americans own the home they live in.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United...

Outside some strips of land on the coasts much of the masses do own homes. Some people get them at 30, some people get them at 50 but for the most part everyone who isn't just bouncing around minimum wage jobs will be a homeowner. That's not to say that the home isn't just a trailer on land and that the location and/or upkeep of the home won't make most upper middle class HN-ers recoil in horror but the fact of the matter is that a heck of a lot of people are homeowners and most of them aren't rich by any stretch.

Home ownership in the US is north of 64% currently.

Even if everything you say is true, it still doesn't negate the fact that it's a new technology which is expensive and needs investment in order to bring down the cost.

When computers were new, only rich organizations like governments, banks, and large corporations could afford them. Now you can buy a raspberry pi for close to nothing.