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Comment on No one really understands our struggle

SCB@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

Landlords aren’t necessarily rent-seekers (though some individuals conceivable could be) as economists use the term, and your lack of understanding of economic rent-seeking is something you can fix.

Rent-seeking is a concept in economics that states that an individual or an entity seeks to increase their own wealth without creating any benefits or wealth to the society. Rent-seeking activities aim to obtain financial gains and benefits through the manipulation of the distribution of economic resource

Providing a home is a benefit to the society.

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Aceticon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
A builder provides the “home”, not the landlord.

The landlord just takes advantage of a superior financial position to sit between the builder and the person who actually needs a home, and get a periodic payment for that.

As you seem to be having trouble with that, I’ve done the google search for you, so here’s [some learning material](Wikipedia’s definition of Rent-Seeking).

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- SCB@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  An example of rent-seeking in a modern economy is spending money on lobbying for government subsidies in order to be given wealth that has already been created, or to impose regulations on competitors, in order to increase one’s own market share.[15] Another example of rent-seeking is the limiting of access to lucrative occupations, as by medieval guilds or modern state certifications and licensures. According to some libertarian perspectives, taxi licensing is a textbook example of rent-seeking.[16] To the extent that the issuing of licenses constrains overall supply of taxi services (rather than ensuring competence or quality), forbidding competition from other vehicles for hire renders the (otherwise consensual) transaction of taxi service a forced transfer of part of the fee, from customers to taxi business proprietors.
  
  The concept of rent-seeking would also apply to corruption of bureaucrats who solicit and extract “bribe” or “rent” for applying their legal but discretionary authority for awarding legitimate or illegitimate benefits to clients.[17] For example, taxpayers may bribe officials to lessen their tax burden.
  
  One would assume they would list… You know… rent, if it applied
  
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  - Aceticon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    You seem to have missed the whole part of that article (most of it) about how the expression had its origin in describing the activities of those using land ownership to extract rents.
    
    You know, getting a “rent” for “land”, also known as being a “landlord”.
    
    All that your quote does is confirm the point I made two comments above that “rent-seeker” is group that includes all of “landlord” like “fruit” is group that includes all “apples” - I suppose when you’re willfully blind it’s normal to run around in circles.
    
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    SCB@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    What you’re missing is they were literally lords, who literally owned land, and extracted rents from shit like charging to harvest kelp on their shoreline, or charging a toll to cross a stream, etc.
    
    E.g. not contributing any benefit (preventing access to a natural resource/mode of travel otherwise possible)
    
    It has nothing to do with providing homes, which is a distinct economic benefit.
    
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