I have a friend who is nearly done with his degree in mechanical engineering. He found a summer job writing contract specifications or something similar for an engineering firm bidding on a government contract. The firm contracted him for a lump sum, assuming that the writing the contract would take him 160 hours. Using Microsoft Word, he finished this task in 20 hours.
When I heard this story, I asked him to think about the aggregate inefficiencies in this economy that exist because people don’t know how to use word processors.
What do you think?
Ducks and Economics 