Just 99 years ago, Americans would cut ice out of lakes and ponds to chill their food - there was no other way to do it. They would store it between layers of straw and saw dust. My mom actually remembers seeing this in her childhood. In 1919 the "Frigidaire" became available (to the rich) for the price of $11,000 (in today's dollars).
ice harvest: growlermag.com
Today 99.8% of Americans have at least one refrigerator, meaning that even those living at today's poverty level have a technology only the ultra-rich could get a hundred years ago. We all take the fridge totally for granted. How did that happen?
In the same way wealth has been built for hundreds of years. Innovators would figure out how to improve the technology, making a better quality fridge or making it with fewer labor hours to reduce the cost. This process happened over and over again for decades.
Today's fridge is much better quality and it's much cheaper. Everybody wins when makers innovate, and customers are free to make their own choices. That's basic free trade.
(from "How Markets Brought Refrigeration to Everyone")
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