>Who exactly do you think the average user of computing power is? Do
>you think there were no computers in the CPI before 97 or no
>personal computers?
They started reporting a PC and software sub index in Dec 97.
> What percentage of total computing power is represented by PCs?
Dunno. How's that relevant? The BEA measures include computers of all kinds sold to users of all kinds.
> How does one calcalute the declining prices of computing power as
>new functions are continuously enabled?
Good question. Lots of smart people have tried to figure this out, and come up with different answers. There's a guy in the BLS on whom a lot of this depends; I've been meaning to call him and have a chat, which I'll report on when I do.
> What measure should we use to determine the falling costs of
>communications? Why should a productivity measure be
>welfare-sensitive?
Because production should serve human needs, and not some technogeek's fetishes. Let them eat gigaflops!
> How does passing off a challenge to a government economist
>constitute a reply?
Because you seem to think you know a lot more than the statisticians who spend their lives trying to measure these things. They might benefit from your wisdom, or, in turn, you might benefit from theirs?
> And what is one to make of your yawning about the recent study of Popkin
I'd like to read Popkin's study, though I don't know why he focuses on recent history so obsessively; machine tools have been evolving for a long long time. But I was yawning at this piece of standard-issue idiocy:
>It should be noted that the inevitable downturn period for adjustments
>will most probably be prolonged by anti business tax and regulatory
>policy forced upon the American people by leftist business observers
>and their ilk.
Yes, we're so powerful, the government will do exactly what we say.
> or Grant's unclear criticism of the hedonic price index
Did I endorse Grant's critique?
> or the upcoming problems of adjusting to the latest industrial revolution?
Capitalism is one long industrial revolution. The latest is no more and probably less profound than the ones that brought us telegraphs, railroads, telephones, cars, jets, and TVs.
Doug