Selling Sen. McCain's Computer Illiteracy - WSJ's "Opportunity" Cost

Recently, Sen. McCain's admission that he can't use a Computer has been in the news.

Quite predictably and expectedly(just as sunrise every morning), the WSJ followed up with a story titled "Note to Next President: Avoid Computers" written by Lee Gomes. On its face this suggestion seems obviously stupid- no one can function in today's world without using technology, especially computers.

The crux of Mr. Gomes' argument is this - "Everyone has heard the puzzle about whether Bill Gates, upon walking to work, should bother to stop and pick up a quarter he saw on the sidewalk. Yes, the quarter is bright and shiny, but a careful assessment of the situation would reveal that, for someone of that earning potential, the time spent retrieving the coin could be spent much more profitably at the office. At least in theory.

For a president, a computer can be a similar distraction. Sure, he could spend five minutes reading an especially insightful blog post from one of his core constituencies. But it would be better for him to be spending the time having coffee with the person thinking the thoughts that the world will be blogging about a week or a month hence."

Perhaps Mr. Gomes doesn't know, but this is called Opportunity Cost. If the opportunity cost of the time spent in picking up a quarter is less than a quarter, then Bill Gates should pick up the quarter. This has nothing to do with the 'average cost' of Mr. Gates' time. Perhaps Mr. Gomes is not aware that Mr. Gates worked at Microsoft for many years for an annual salary of $1. Clearly, according to Mr. Gomes, he should have spent his time doing something else.

A President can have his aides assist him in keeping up-to-date and responding to constituents. This should be separated from the desire and the capability to use a computer. One can blame the current myriad problems facing the country on the fact that President Bush has no curiosity, wants his people to give him 'short' soundbites, and 'delegates.'

If Mr. Gomes had titled his article along the lines of "President Should Use His Time Judiciously" it would make sense but it would be stating the obvious. Telling the next President to "avoid computers" is a rather blatantly obvious attempt to portray McCain's computer illiteracy in a positive light.

As a side note, my mother, who is 73 years old, took an 'Introduction to Computers" course this summer and now does email and online chat and reads newspapers online. What makes it all the more remarkable is that she took courses in English for four years prior to this, as she had never studied English before and she never got an opportunity to go to high school. She is incredibly curious, and has a great desire to learn- something our current President and Sen. McCain have not demonstrated.