>Historically, advertising was a small part of product cost. Today, in many industries from movies to drugs, it dominates. This runs up prices for everyone. The

>Historically, advertising was a small part of product cost. Today, in many industries from movies to drugs, it dominates. This runs up prices for everyone. There's an economic argument for limiting advertising spend. Advertising spend as a share of GDP hasn't changed much at all on average over the last century: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-03/advertisings-century-of-flat-line-growth https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-03-03/advertisi... And some say it has even declined in recent years: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/273094/us-advertising-as-percentage-of-gdp-slows.html https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/273094/us-adv... The strange thing is that it doesn't feel like that at all. Advertising has become obnoxious to such a degree that it renders many sites entirely unresponsive on some devices (like my aging iPad). I have stopped visiting some sites or reduced the number of visits dramatically. The advertising industry and indeed the publishing sector itself is clearly on a suicide mission. Someone needs to save them from themselves.