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by harryh 3113 days ago
I think the vast majority of the gains from the computing revolution have been captured in consumer surplus. Billions of people get to use all kinds of online software for free. Certainly hard to estimate but this is likely worth trillions alone?
2 comments

You still have to pay to access the Internet. Comcast/AT&T aren't free.
It's still cheap as free compared to the cost of accessing the same information/media pre-Internet.

Google used to brag about how using Google was more energy-efficient than going to the local library.

You can probably measure some of that in terms of how people would have done these tasks previously. Some of those tasks are trivial, like keeping a paper calendar instead of a digital one.

You can also interpret it in terms of jobs eliminated.