The software companies have 4x the margin (20% vs 5%). So you're right: whereas they presently employ the same number of people per $GDP as car companies, they

The software companies have 4x the margin (20% vs 5%). So you're right: whereas they presently employ the same number of people per $GDP as car companies, they could employ more. It seems the important thing about software here is that it hasn't been commodified yet. Once it has, margins will come down and it will be just like the car industry. In the meantime, whether it's widely believed to cause economic boom or malaise only depends on which side of 2011 we're believing from.