I have to agree, blocking ads is circumventing a micropayment. I try not to do that, at least to websites that I care about and feel are honest.
Having said that, Madison avenue is insatiable. When I think back to when I was a kid, TV was free over the airwaves, commercials were ... reasonable.
Today, I pay $90/m for basic dish service and suck down 20+ minutes of ads in a hour for medium popularity shows. I live out in the country where over the air service is bad. I don't have the choice to pay a small amount of money for just a couple of channels that I do actually watch.Talk about a bad deal. I'm told that if I am given the privilege of just paying for a couple of channels rather than a "package" all hell will break loose and all the small players in the industry will fail... I really think I'm being lied to, but whatever.
I do understand that the advertisers/content providers will continue to pile advertising on until the system breaks (diminishing returns). Right? You have to maximize profits, which equates to putting in maximum advertising that the consumer will tolerate and still watch. So I do feel it is my duty to make my displeasure known by not visiting sites with excessive advertising. Popups, high volume audio, ads that obscure the page are all lethal to my viewing habits.
I've wondered whether Ad blockers are a valid method of civil disobedience. If I don't visit a site because of advertising, the site may go away, especially the small players. On the other hand, with ad blockers, they see the traffic, so they know it's there, and have a chance to change their advertising plan... I'm probably rationalizing now though.
As far as Mr. Murdoch goes, that *** manipulator can do whatever he wants. IMHO if he filed bankruptcy, the world would be better. I really stopped trusting WSJ after he picked it up. I don't really want his biased brand of so called news for free. He's just looking for a way to charge other news outlet, Fark, bloggers, etc for what he considers "his news".
But all in all, the morals of using Ad Blocker are kinda hard, and made harder by a greedy, relentlessly progressive industry.