[thesteamboat]

> Rent-seeking by itself is morally neutral, like guns. Like a gun, it's how you use it that determines if you're contributing positive value to overall society.

This strikes me as a bad analogy. What differentiates your statement from

Theft by itself is morally neutral, [...] it's what you steal that determines if you're contributing positive value to overall society.

You might be willing to endorse that statement, but I think most people would not.

I think that if you want to assert that rent-seeking is tool-like, with multiple uses some positive and some negative, then the burden of proof is on you to provide some examples.