The wording “disproportionately smaller effects” seems like assuming the conclusion. To me, using adblock has a positive effect. You say if everyone does that, another effect will arise and the sum of two effects will be net negative. But in econ, when everyone chooses what’s good for them, the result is usually net positive. There’s an exception in case of tragedy of the commons, but many people refusing to look at ads isn’t a tragedy of the commons, because all goods involved are private and excludable.
I think this is simpler to talk about with the case of publisher funding than purchasing decisions, and your arguments still apply. If you start using adblock you observe your experience on news sites is better, with no visible deterioration in the quality of reporting available to you. But each adblock user slightly decreases the publisher’s income, and a world where adblock usage was, say, 98%, would mean you really couldn’t run sites supported by advertising.
Applying “if everyone does what’s good for them” here is tricky. The publisher would like to say “you’re welcome to read my articles for free, as long as you don’t bypass the ads”, and then adblockers let users take one half of the offer without the other. Which I guess violates the “excludable” premise you have above?
A rough analogy (and I’m just talking about the economics and explicitly not trying to say adblocking is morally similar to shoplifting) is that you could save money by shoplifting, and it would be good for you individually. But the more people shoplift the less a business model of “put products on shelves, users will pay for them when they leave” stops working.
Yeah, “excludable” is the key part. Privatizing the commons is supposed to prevent tragedy of the commons and lead to an efficient outcome. Since privately owned websites can choose anytime to use an adblock detector (these exist and work fine) or start charging viewers, we should expect an efficient outcome.
You’re probably better informed than me, but I thought it was relatively easy to deny service in case of adblock (without trying to show a content teaser, nag message, or ad). Or at least that’s easier than getting an ad through.
The wording “disproportionately smaller effects” seems like assuming the conclusion. To me, using adblock has a positive effect. You say if everyone does that, another effect will arise and the sum of two effects will be net negative. But in econ, when everyone chooses what’s good for them, the result is usually net positive. There’s an exception in case of tragedy of the commons, but many people refusing to look at ads isn’t a tragedy of the commons, because all goods involved are private and excludable.
I think this is simpler to talk about with the case of publisher funding than purchasing decisions, and your arguments still apply. If you start using adblock you observe your experience on news sites is better, with no visible deterioration in the quality of reporting available to you. But each adblock user slightly decreases the publisher’s income, and a world where adblock usage was, say, 98%, would mean you really couldn’t run sites supported by advertising.
Applying “if everyone does what’s good for them” here is tricky. The publisher would like to say “you’re welcome to read my articles for free, as long as you don’t bypass the ads”, and then adblockers let users take one half of the offer without the other. Which I guess violates the “excludable” premise you have above?
A rough analogy (and I’m just talking about the economics and explicitly not trying to say adblocking is morally similar to shoplifting) is that you could save money by shoplifting, and it would be good for you individually. But the more people shoplift the less a business model of “put products on shelves, users will pay for them when they leave” stops working.
Yeah, “excludable” is the key part. Privatizing the commons is supposed to prevent tragedy of the commons and lead to an efficient outcome. Since privately owned websites can choose anytime to use an adblock detector (these exist and work fine) or start charging viewers, we should expect an efficient outcome.
Why would you say adblock detectors work fine? My understanding is any time a popular site starts using one, adblockers work around the detector: https://medium.com/@BugReplay/f-kadblock-how-publishers-are-defeating-ad-blockers-how-ad-blockers-are-fighting-back-678392e03ac1
EDIT: another example (https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/issues/883) and a long list of issues (https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uAssets/issues?q=anti-adblock)
You’re probably better informed than me, but I thought it was relatively easy to deny service in case of adblock (without trying to show a content teaser, nag message, or ad). Or at least that’s easier than getting an ad through.