> You either Play the game or you Die. And given the game is won by the highest bidder, all of the surplus created by technical progress goes to advertising wh

> You either Play the game or you Die. And given the game is won by the highest bidder, all of the surplus created by technical progress goes to advertising which, as you point out, adds zero value and, in fact, detracts from rational agents making optimal decisions. This is /exactly/ the kind of market failure where those of us who prefer smaller government want to start talking about appropriate regulation.