My wife is working on a new computer system in her pharmacy, with the usual growing pains, and her opinion of computers in hospitals may not be all that objective right now.

If more work was being done to standardize recordkeeping on computers, we could reduce a lot of overhead costs in medicine.

In my own field of work, my computer allows me to do the work that, when I was starting out, would have taken a room full of draftsmen, engineers, and artists. Yet, while I get paid more than a draftsman, I get paid less than that roomful. Also, I have more skills than a draftsman, and it's harder to find people who can do the work. Multiply this situation by many kinds of work, and you can see where things have changed in our economy.

Computers have made some people a lot more productive, and have reduced the need for other people. Kind of like what happened when farming became mechanized.