Advertisers aren't funding content to help the middle class. They're funding content to take the middle class's money. You might think advertising doesn't make people spend more, but there's a pretty big industry that disagrees with you.
I don't care if it's hard to build a business on subscriptions. The alternative—building a business on addiction and manipulation—is immoral. I will happily watch it die.
You might think advertising doesn't make people spend more, but there's a pretty big industry that disagrees with you.
So what would people do with the money if ads didn't exist? Make quilts out of bills? People are going to spend it all, that's the whole purpose of money, ads just redirect who gets it.
So, you are agains people having some savings and less junk that does not make them happier? You do realise that much of advertising is geared towards getting you to do that impulse purchase that you later regret?
There are studies showing that people don't use their garages to park their cars, because they are full of stuff.
Ads constantly remind me that the newer model of the blender that I have will make me sooo much cooler (blender is just an example). But the last year's blender that I have works perfectly well. Why should I like the fact that the website tells me that I'm old and boring because I don't have a perfect body and I have last year's blender model?
Yes, people buy a lot of crap they don't need. It's not clear to me that they would stop doing so without advertising, or whether ads are just getting them to buy different crap. Besides, with the constant concern about "aggregate demand", it's far from clear to me that people would actually be allowed to keep those savings.
I don't care if it's hard to build a business on subscriptions. The alternative—building a business on addiction and manipulation—is immoral. I will happily watch it die.