PG's article is looking back at the state of the internet in the late 90's. His claim is that back then most internet advertisers were themselves VC-funded, which made the whole thing a ponzi scheme.
The first two ads I'm seeing right now in my news feed are Walmart and Banana Republic. I don't think 2016 is anything like 1998.
I always say the same thing when people are buying FB ads. Doesn't matter how people you reach, how people are you converting?
Reminds me of an article that came out in 2010 comparing their add platform to a Ponzi scheme:
http://www.jperla.com/blog/post/facebook-is-a-ponzi-scheme
It also references PG's rant about how Yahoo! was doing the same thing in his 2010 article:
http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html