vincent p. norris wrote:

If you want to be serious, the folks who really pay for those
commercials are YOU and everyone else who buys the advertised
products.

I am deadly serious. While I recognize and respect your background, the
other obvious caveat to private industry marketing and the associated
mark up of products, is that I have a choice to buy the item or not.

I've been retired for ten years and can't cite current numbers, but
it's safe to say that commercial advertising's media expenditures
alone cost something like two thousand dollars per family per year.

I think you're close.

[snip]

I know that, but I thought we were discussing economic waste. The
number you cited as the amount spent on political ads included print
media expenditures, not just broadcast ads.

At the end of the day, *normal* advertising in theory is to increase
sales which in theory results in more production which begats more
workers to fulfill the production (I know with beer it gets muddy). In
politics, IMO, there is no long term benefit to the economy and again,
IMO, a sure sign that the system is broken given the moneys spent. But
ya gotta buy them votes somehow.