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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Moominoid who wrote (59057)	1/18/2001 12:49:54 PM
From: Thomas M.	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 436258

Not if a consumer buys the computer or if the computer is exported. If the computer is exported, and if it improves the productivity of the buyer, it will show in the buyer's productions numbers. This doesn't benefit the U.S. at all, so it shouldn't show up in our stats. If a consumer buys the computer, and has more fun with it, that doesn't matter. Productivity has nothing to do with happiness. Our economic net worth has not gained. If the improved lifestyle or time saved actually helps the consumer become more productive at work, then it will show up in his production numbers. I suppose that if one were to apply your TFP calculation to the productivity of the PC maker, one would also have to apply it to the PC buyer. The PC buying company has to radically increase its inputs (in MHz, not in $$$) just to run the latest software. Since this software isn't much better and the company isn't improving its productivity very much (according to all stats we have), its TFP is falling off a cliff. Net - net, the productivity gains by the PC maker will cancel out the losses by the user. Tom