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This will make the world much poorer. You might think that's worth it but it's true.

No it won't.

See? I can make unsubstantiated sweeping claims too.

Yours is incorrect though :). Advertising brings tremendous consumer subsidies (most trivially: Google and Facebook are free). It would be convenient for your POV if there was no tradeoff though so I understand why you would prefer to pretend.

Just because surveillance capitalism and hyper-targeted advertising are the ways that some companies subsidize their loss leaders does not mean that it is the only way.

Also, the value that companies like Facebook bring to the world is negative, and the fact that it is free only makes it worse.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com