Just like certain drugs can trick the human brain into thinking they are beneficial, economic incentives are making us admire billionaires and corporations. But they are evil. They influence our media to make them report positively on them. Non cooperative individuals or organizations receive no money, no ads. But ads interrupt our thinking, turn us all into attention disorder cases. I agree with the points you offer, but I very much disagree with the idea that because such biases distort our minds and our economies they are therefore not worth discussing. To the contrary, the economy drives technological development which in turn leads to AI and further technology. If the biases in our thinking are present at such a basic level this can not be ignored. I would go as far as saying that your comment addresses one of the most important topics I have seen here in a long time.
I would really like to hear more about this topic. I am actually trying something entrepreneur-ish right now (see my post on LifeTracking). I want to help people, but I also want to make money, but not in a way that also damages/hurts people. I was going to put ads in my program, but then I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I personally hate ads and I wouldn't want to push them onto anyone.
Are there any areas of study that you feel are underrepresented here, and would be interesting and useful to lesswrongers?
I feel some topics are getting old (Omega, drama about moderation policy, a newcomer telling us our lack of admiration for his ideas is proof of groupthink, Friendly AI, Cryonics, Epistemic vs. Instrumental Rationality, lamenting how we're a bunch of self-centered nerds, etc. ...), and with a bit of luck, we might have some lurkers that are knowledgeable about interesting areas, and didn't think they could contribute.
Please stick to one topic per comment, so that highly-upvoted topics stand out more clearly.