Do people read spam?

After reading about the recent attack on an anti-spam website, I have begun to think whether the fight against spam is worth it. I agree that spamming is a pain in the butt, on the other hand, do people read the spam that they recieve? I personally just trash email that I identify as spam and most of the time, they are so obvious. And especially, the Spam Filter on my Yahoo Box does a pretty good job of identifying the spam and 'frying' them as promised! ;-) But still, its pretty annoying with all the time wasted in identifying and deleting unsolicited email.

What do the perpertrators actually get from these? When people stop responding to spam email or ignore it all together, would the spammers get what they wanted? Business? I am of the view that spammers will thrive only until gullible users endorse or fall into the traps that the unsolicited emails announce, such as medication or instant money. Once everyone starts ignoring them, maybe the spammers would pack up and go home.

Retaliation for Antispam Success?