[reader_mode]

Ads are not the problem - harvesting the most talented CS people to work on ads is - this is the kind of innovation your ideal system leads to. Personally I'd rather live in a society that values going to mars. Subjective I know, but I only have one life to live, I don't live in the general case :)

Bitcoin is an extreeme example of something that's built in to markets - you're trying to guess how much someone will be willing to pay for an asset and this leads to natural bubles - it stops being about determining the value of something and it starts being about playing the market. You can spin whatever rationalizations you want arround it - bitcoin is the most degenerate manifestation of this. If you find a market full of idiots willing to buy bullshit and pump it's valuation, if the idiocy is strong enough that it wont easily go away, you have a really good incentive to join in and prosthelytize to grow the bubble more, even if you don't beleive it - just the fact you beleive there will be more idiots buying in makes it rational for you to get in.

And if you skip out on trading on it you'll be punished with below avarage returns.

[002445]

And your solution to "the problem" of other people freely choosing where and what to work on is what? You choose?

Let's agree to disagree on politics. Just let me know if you're ever about to be chosen as Supreme Chairman of the Party so I know what country to avoid.

[reader_mode]

It's better to realign the incentives to make sure you don't end up in pathological scenarios. The reason why tech companies find investing in this so lucrative is because these markets have so much winner-takes-all scenarios. You don't need to strawman it - governments are dealing with these kinds of secnarios, it's not ideal but better than doing nothing.