{"id":4250,"date":"2020-06-11T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T17:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=4250"},"modified":"2020-06-06T10:38:05","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T17:38:05","slug":"your-economy-if-water-flows-downhill-then-why-fight-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=4250","title":{"rendered":"Economics 101: If water flows downhill, then why fight it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ll get the importance of this in a moment. Hang in there.<\/em><\/p>\n

Substitute the word \u201cmoney\u201d for \u201cwater\u201d and we have an explanation for most all the reasons why successful products move from concept through early adopters through mass market.<\/p>\n

How money flows through the system<\/strong><\/p>\n

Money flows to the cheapest effective solution to a problem.\u00a0 Fighting this fact will just extend the misery of accepting a result with as product or marketing failure in the marketplace.\u00a0 Want examples in the “real world?”<\/p>\n

Examples of the proposition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Take for example, adoption of solar panels or electric vehicles in the mass market.\u00a0\u00a0 Most \"\"of us want to do well for the environment. But most of the time we are willing to do so only if we do well for ourselves when measuring alternative costs.\u00a0 Solar panel installations break even only after over years of use, even with subsidies offered by the electric companies or by the Federal government. And adoption of solar technology for home and business was relatively slow until solar companies began offering systems as rentals with guaranteed returns.<\/p>\n

Solar panels are getting closer to economic savings <\/strong><\/p>\n

[Email readers, continue here…]<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 As solar panel efficiency increases from the present average of 22% to 30% and more, and as electricity prices rise, the net break even for solar panels should decrease dramatically.\u00a0 It\u2019s already happening in some sunny areas of the country. When subsidies stop, the economic break even will decrease to a few years as mass acceptance becomes real.\u00a0 And the reason for the delays, as well as the later successes, will surely be in the money saved, not just in \u201cdoing well by doing good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note the exception of states where rooftop solar panels are now required for new construction, a clever way to increase acceptance.<\/p>\n

Electric cars as an example<\/strong><\/p>\n

Electric cars become attractive investments when the extra cost can be amortized over a year or two of savings in fuel.\u00a0 And we are a long way from that. Making this more difficult, the cost of fuel for gas-driven cars is volatile, making the calculation more difficult.<\/p>\n

\"\"Yes, many people salivate over the latest Tesla; and the sales of the Chevy Volt are surprisingly strong, priced low enough for commuters to calculate that break even is close enough to satisfy the desire to help the environment while enjoying daily savings.<\/p>\n

Back to the water flowing downhill example.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whenever someone asks why a product or service has taken so long to succeed in the marketplace – when so obviously a success with early adopters – why not try using the water flowing downhill analogy?\u00a0 It provides a proper insight almost every time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ll get the importance of this in a moment. Hang in there. Substitute the word \u201cmoney\u201d for \u201cwater\u201d and we have an explanation for most all the reasons why successful products move from concept through early adopters through mass market. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}