[elisbce]

Ads suck. But you know what's worse than Ads? Selfish people. If Google, YouTube and everywhere else starts asking you to pay high subscription fees for using their services, are you willing/going to pay? You looked up information for work, for life, for leisure, you spend hours online each day, gorging information and content for free. You even learned valuable things and made money using their services and information. And yet all you have to say is don't bother me while I'm leeching off your free content.

[mikrl]

>If Google, YouTube and everywhere else starts asking you to pay high subscription fees for using their services, are you willing/going to pay?

Based on my rudimentary knowledge of microeconomics, it depends on how much they charge.

But bringing economics into it, it does seem strange that the internet is probably the only industry where this form of exchange (ads, producers, consumers) exists.

In any other industry, the producer pays money to ads, the ads get me to the place and I pay the producer.

[chii]

> In any other industry, the producer pays money to ads, the ads get me to the place and I pay the producer.

how is this not what ads on the internet work?

[amelius]

We already pay these fees ourselves collectively because the advertising costs are incorporated into the price of products.

Plus we now pay an additional tax on top of it to Google et al.

Plus we pay with our attention, and with our data (as someone else already noted).

On top of this all, the near-monopoly of Google is forcing prices for ads up, and there is a vicious cycle where companies need to buy increasingly expensive ads to outcompete each other (or, to stay relevant). Which, of course, the consumer ultimately pays for.