Ten years ago the Microsoft operating system that came with your computer accounted for about 10% of the cost of the machine. Today, with the prices of PCs falling the cost of a Microsoft operating system accounts for between 20% and 30% of the cost of a new PC.
The computing power that cost five hundred dollars today cost a million dollars twenty years ago.
Ten years ago the cost of a copy of Windows was about $100 retail. The cost today? The cheapest that I have found a full copy of any supported version of Windows is around $120. Now I'm sure that the price is lower in large quantities, but that was true then too.
The Windows OS integration and performance that cost a hundred dollars today would have cost thousands of dollars ten years ago.
There's no other industry that I know of that can touch those beyond-exponential increases in value. Fortunately, it's because the computer industry has had the least regulation foisted on it by politicians and bureaucrats -- parasitical elites versus market-driven hosts.
Government intervention into peaceful, private activity -- free association wherein any or all parties are free to walk away -- will make things worse rather than better.
Any government agency that is a value to the people and society could better serve the people by being in the private sector where competition demands maximum performance.
Wake up! They are the parasites. We are the host. We don't need them. They need us.