i don't buy this. advertising in general is a huge and successful business. i don't see it fixing itself, especially if allowed to run purely by short-term gree

i don't buy this. advertising in general is a huge and successful business. i don't see it fixing itself, especially if allowed to run purely by short-term greed than ethics. if you have kids then you know just how dman persuasive advertisements are--they create need where there isn't any. furthermore, the US government is strongly effected by rich corporations. if only big journalism were as biased and non-money grubbing as the watchdog it was meant to be. i'm not sure what you mean by "fix" things on its own. around the turn of the century the US enacted some incredible policy to keep corporations in check (no child labor, anti-trust, etc). we now rely on public opinion (assuming there is some transparency and consumer advocating!) to prevent corporations from abusing lax human rights policy elsewhere. ultimately, users are too easy to exploit. they get hit by smart advertisements from a young age. by the time they are adults they could believe anything. people put up with crap because they are trying to accomplish other goals, don't have the time to become savy, and they get used to things. it's pretty tough to change the culture against the folks controlling the culture. there are some positive changes in recent culture. for example, more and more consumers care about fair traide and other social and environmental policies of the corporations whose products they buy. unfortunately, without transparency, we've levelled off with corporations "green washing" and mislabelling their goods (not a new tactic). the idea that consumers have the real [purchasing] power is crap in implementation. in the end though, we're talking about scams not advertisements. that is where ethics and "crossing the line" should come into the picture. traditionally speaking, consumers have a hard time responding proactively against scams. if it weren't for consumer advocacy groups (typically non-profit, as it turns out) that help consumers take scammers to court or lobby government on behalf of consumers, then people would be screwed. that just reminded me of some scammy private insurance companies, so i think i'll stop talking here.