"My cars will make $24,000 per year" (in a comment justifying spending a quarter million dollars on Tesla products)
"People don't understand how we can spend half their monthly income on one organic drink" (in a completely unrelated comment)
"if I buy two Teslas my savings triple!" (another person justifying Tesla's marketing with some creative math)
Sounds like something you'd hear from protesters mocking the 1% but no just another day here on HN.
I've been here (in various incarnations) long enough to say this, so could we try to be just a little bit more self aware? 24k/yr is nearly double the minimum wage. A quarter million dollars is a truly immense amount of money. And buying two cars is a dream for most of America, ignoring the fact that those are two Teslas, which are roughly $70k cars (and no, you can't currently buy any $35k Teslas no matter what Musk's Twitter says.)
It seems like he's just running some calculations. Your upset about this seems pretty misplaced. Firstly, he didn't even say he would be buying Tesla cars - just two electric cars. And secondly, he didn't actually claim he had the resources to do any of this, just that he was calculating the ROI on doing it. Which is a figure that i'm interested in, even though I can't afford to buy a solar roof or two electric cars of any variety.
"People in blah also can't understand how we spend half of their monthly income on some organic blah drink.", qaq
"$2000 earned by the cars while not used by owner", palakchokshi (it's clarified elsewhere in the comments that that's $2000 per month)
"when I add 2 electric cars, the savings nearly triple", 11thEarlOfMar (to be fair, he seems to be almost free of the reality distortion field, but still the idea of buying two $70k cars to _save_ money is ridiculous)
> "People in blah also can't understand how we spend half of their monthly income on some organic blah drink.", qaq
That's pretty clearly a true statement. Qaq isn't claiming he is in this market. Just deriding the oft-expressed belief by people who are not in a market that said market does not exist.
> "$2000 earned by the cars while not used by owner", palakchokshi (it's clarified elsewhere in the comments that that's $2000 per month)
He's just running calculations? I don't understand what the problem with this is.
Running calculations on what? Tesla's aren't even self driving in the first place. And there is no market for self driving uber cars yet. Who knows how much you can make off them. And if it was really 2k a month, Telsa would probably sell them straight to Uber instead of customers.
So the 1% have a different rational calculus -- you're saying it's simply wrong for them to discuss these things in a public forum, simply because it would make people with less money feel bad?
It's not like people are out here bragging about how much money they earn while screwing the little guy, they're just having a topical discussion about how much this product makes sense (or not).
No, we are not talking about minimum wage earners as very few can own homes. They are not in the solar roof market. The context is home owners.
In the US the average new car cost is $33,560. A $35,000 electric car is within reason and available on the market.
A roof is a 30 year investment. Cars are owned for much less time and auto transport is likely to transition to electric over the next decade or two. That means that in 10 years, my current gasoline cars will be worn out (I put a lot of miles on them) and I'll need to replace them anyway, and there are many advantages to electric cars.
So firstly, I just wanted to say you seemed like the most self-aware of anybody I quoted.
That aside though, c'mon. Sure, the average _new_ car cost might be $33k, but have you ever been poor? Or known anyone who is? Poor people don't buy cars... they buy used cars, use public transportation, walk or bike. Poor people cannot afford a seventy thousand dollar Tesla, or even a $35k hypothetical Tesla.
And a lot of people are homeowners. In the US (off my head) the homeownership rate is around 70%. Musk literally said that his solar roof would be cheaper than a standard roof. It is not. End of sentence. No discussion: no matter what crazy sci-fi-ocalypse scenario plays out an $80k roof will not save you money compared to a $12k roof and investing the change in an index fund.
Musk does a lot of cool stuff, and the roof is kinda cool, but we can't live in a reality distortion field.
Poor people will be able to buy used electric cars in the future. They'll still pay the same for the electricity as rich people, just like for gasoline.
If I were to skewer my own arguments, I'd aim at the batteries. They wear out, they are still expensive, mass production doesn't appear to bear the same cost reduction opportunity as other products...
I think a fair point here is that any electric car maker is not targeting the lowest income market. They are selling new cars, not used ones. The lowest income bracket is buying used cars, at best.
"My cars will make $24,000 per year" (in a comment justifying spending a quarter million dollars on Tesla products)
"People don't understand how we can spend half their monthly income on one organic drink" (in a completely unrelated comment)
"if I buy two Teslas my savings triple!" (another person justifying Tesla's marketing with some creative math)
Sounds like something you'd hear from protesters mocking the 1% but no just another day here on HN.
I've been here (in various incarnations) long enough to say this, so could we try to be just a little bit more self aware? 24k/yr is nearly double the minimum wage. A quarter million dollars is a truly immense amount of money. And buying two cars is a dream for most of America, ignoring the fact that those are two Teslas, which are roughly $70k cars (and no, you can't currently buy any $35k Teslas no matter what Musk's Twitter says.)