> Productivity, especially in relevant areas like administration, stagnated despite computers hitting every desk.
I don't know if this has been quantified, but to some extent the extra capability is simply repurposed to more detailed administration. Things that were not possible become possible. Things that we did not have time for, we suddenly have time to do. Per Parkinson, "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion".
An example would be logistics within the US -- at some point, probably after 9/11 or a similar event, it was decided that all packages flying in commercial airlines within the US needed to be vouched for by entities known to the US government, the individual packages tracked at a more detailed level, etc. This would not have been possible without automation throughout the industry, and definitely "soaked up" some of the productivity benefits of this automation.
That also happens in e.g. manufacturing. I was talking to an uncle who worked in aluminium manufacturing, he was explaining that as computers developed they could convert waste to very precisely understood ingots (in terms of composition), then when an order arrives the manufacturing program would know exactly what ingots should be picked to fulfil the order with as little pure metal (both aluminium and solutes) as possible, as that’s where the plant’s margin was. Iirc he told me they were above 99% (so only needed pure aluminium straight out of a smelter for less than 1% of their production).
I don't know if this has been quantified, but to some extent the extra capability is simply repurposed to more detailed administration. Things that were not possible become possible. Things that we did not have time for, we suddenly have time to do. Per Parkinson, "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion".
An example would be logistics within the US -- at some point, probably after 9/11 or a similar event, it was decided that all packages flying in commercial airlines within the US needed to be vouched for by entities known to the US government, the individual packages tracked at a more detailed level, etc. This would not have been possible without automation throughout the industry, and definitely "soaked up" some of the productivity benefits of this automation.
I'm sure there are endless other examples.