> in theory companies like Facebook are worth hundreds of billions despite making many people miserable and actually lowering productivity by wasting time They

> in theory companies like Facebook are worth hundreds of billions despite making many people miserable and actually lowering productivity by wasting time They are "worth" that amount not because they are creating that much wealth, but because they have developed a system that allows them to transfer that much wealth from others to themselves in a zero sum game. > Customers and markets aren't rational if the people are driven by addiction In the sense that people can be manipulated, sure. But "addiction" is by no means the only way to do that. Advertising in general (which is how Facebook makes much of its money) attempts to do the same thing. > in which case it would make sense for the government to intervene. But, as your example shows, we know what it takes for government intervention of this sort: it takes being China, i.e., having a government with virtually absolute power. And that is not a viable long term solution, because a government with such power, even if it uses it to do some good things, will use it to do many more very damaging things, and everyone ends up worse off on net.