Economy
Capitalism = making money through ownership of capital rather than purely by labour.
Desire is suffering. Advertising induces desire to generate economic activity, and so could be construed as a form of paid torture.
We're kept on the "hamster wheel" by a carrot, not a stick.
It is undeniably true that we don't need the overwhelming majority of things consume be happy. People have found happiness without being rampant consumers for thousands of years. Unfortunately, advertising has directly influenced people's ability to find happiness without consumption. The problem is not everyone can consume everything they believe is required to be happy. Furthermore, many people give up work/life balance or go into debt-slavery in order to try and consume their way to happiness. As a result, people who might otherwise be happy are made unhappy by in significant part by advertising.
Even worse, if you actually do reach your consumption quota, you find it doesn't make cause lasting happiness. Most people infer that the answer is to consume more, and they end up killing themselves on the hedonic treadmill.
Economic principles - How the economic machine works.
QuantEcon - Open source code for economic modeling.
