R1 — Anchor the falling-cost case on the decade 2004–2014 (infrastructure + parts + data); AI-assisted coding is NOT the spine

Rule: When writing or speaking about why "real" web functionality is now within SMB reach, anchor the argument on the three structural drivers that got cheap on the dated 2004–2014 timeline — infrastructure, the off-the-shelf parts, and data. Never anchor on AI-assisted coding.

Why: The structural drivers are dated, sourced, and verifiable (Timeline 2004–2014: the decade when each of the three historically-expensive parts independently got cheap). They predate AI-assisted coding by a decade. The case is more credible because it stands without AI — adding AI as the headline weakens it by making it sound like the latest hype cycle.

How to apply:

• Article ledes name the three drivers and their dated timeline; AI lands later, in a smaller paragraph, as recent acceleration at the margin.
• Client conversations introduce the cost-floor story via S3/EC2/Stripe/Auth0/data.gov dates, not via "AI changed everything."
• See companion rule R2 — Keep AI-assisted coding at the margin; it lowers assembly labor recently but is not a structural driver.