[dragonwriter]

> Mozilla Research puts the entire web's advertising revenue at $12.70/month per users[1]. This means that is the most we'd have to pay on average if could just pay directly (and in fact less if because all the overhead and externalities go away).

Direct payments have overhead and externalities (aide from simply payment processing overhad, consider that instead of providing content to all comers with accompanying ads, content providers have to have paywalls -- to stop the content from getting taken for free -- and find some way of promoting content to those who haven't yet paid to convince them to pay for it.) Neither the paywalls nor the promotional efforts are free of cost.