top | item 46534845

(no title)

Plasmoid | 1 month ago

Because:

> Rent-seeking is the act of growing one's existing wealth by manipulating public policy or economic conditions without creating new wealth. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking)

Given that renting out property you own doesn't meet this definition it can categorically not be called rent seeking. I'm always shocked that people apply this definition exclusively to property rentals, and not VHS rentals, without seeing the hypocrisy.

discuss

order

mapontosevenths|1 month ago

Wild. It seems to be a very common misunderstanding too.

Googling it after reading Wikipedia shows that about half the sites out there talking about it are also using it wrongly.

Thanks for explaining!

JoshTriplett|1 month ago

Massive credit for genuinely changing position in the face of evidence; this is rare and deserves lauding.

arretevad|1 month ago

I fail to understand how your quote doesn't describe land lords? It is: 1. An act of growing one's own wealth (no other purpose to land lording) 2. It is accomplished by taking advantage of economic conditions (perhaps not "manipulating") 3. Does not create any new wealth.

And a little further down is this: > Rent-seeking implies the extraction of uncompensated value from others without making any contribution to productivity.

Which to me certainly sounds like someone who's only contribution is ownership.

pixelatedindex|1 month ago

Aren’t you exploiting the economic condition that housing supply is extremely low, and a lot of them vote to keep supply low and prevent new builds? I’m not trying to be facetious but I find it hard to believe that landlords don’t exploit economic conditions.

throwaway2037|1 month ago

Most landlords are normies that happen to own one or two extra homes. How could these people meaningfully "exploit economic conditions"?

Plasmoid|1 month ago

That's too broad of a concept to be useful. If you applied it like that then quitting a job would be rent seeking for the same reason

tshaddox|1 month ago

There’s no hypocrisy, of course. VHS tapes are not factors of production, which is the universe of discourse here.

Plasmoid|1 month ago

What? Of course they are. They just produce entertainment instead of housing-days.

I think we're at the bottom of the discussion here. You've got your opinions but each time you've been pressed you don't really have a justification that stands up.