Tenner notes that economics textbooks used to introduce the idea of efficient labor markets by telling the story of the best lawyer in town who also happens to be the best typist. The obvious conclusion of the textbook story is that the lawyer would be foolish to not hire a typist. If the lawyer bills $500 an hour and a typist costs $50 an hour, then the lawyer will clearly end up better off outsourcing the typing so she can spend more time on legal work. The arrival of computers in the workplace, it seems, obscured this once obvious reality. We’ve all become the lawyer spending hours at the
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