"It is amazingly arrogant to say that someone could be convinced to 'buy crap that they didn't need or that was even harmful to them.'What possibly makes you think you have a better idea of what goods and services I need than you do?"
You've never heard anyone complain about buying crap that they didn't need? You never seen someone's house chock full of crap that they never use (sometimes never even taken out of the box)? You don't know anyone with a shopping (or eating) addiction?
Or perhaps you're not aware that corporations spend billions on trying to figure out people's psychology so that products could be marketed more effectively (by, say, doing something so important to utility of the product as changing the color of the box its sold in or the font on the front of the box, or the music played in stores as people shop, not to mention slimy marketing techniques such as getting paid stooges to pretend to be consumers while singing praises of the product and company).
Of course, maybe the consumer really does need to be, say, poisoned by cigarettes, or have a burning need to enlarge their male member, and the valiant marketers are just providing a valuable service by making the consumer aware of this great, hitherto unknown need.
"As for 'lied, bribed, cheated, stolen, or killed' - those are all already illegal and prosecuted."
I'm not sure what your point is there. So these means are (sometimes) illegal. And (sometimes) prosecuted. Many people still continue to use them (just open any newspaper on any day of the year).
"Would you disagree with my hypothesis that in, say the last 30 years, less than 10% of millionaires are minted through those means?"
Unless they were caught (or you were personally involved), how would you know? That's not to say that some haven't been caught. But, like roaches, you can bet that the ones that you see are just a tiny minority compared to the ones you don't see.