4 ms·
There are a few things I disagree with. 1) Income from rent is not unearned. The reason it is called unearned is because nothing new was created. However, many
by onetimeusename 10y ago
There are a few things I disagree with.
1) Income from rent is not unearned. The reason it is called unearned is because nothing new was created. However, many services are this way. For example, fees paid to lawyers, or insurance fees and so on. Income earned from rent is income that comes from providing a service which is shelter or land for other uses.
2) Investment income is not parasitic. A share is a portion of a company. If someone buys a share, they are buying into ownership at a price they think is worthwhile. The prices of the shares are largely based on the value of the company. The value of a company can continue to go up and so profits come from the company being more valuable, not parasitically. Also, many shares provide dividends which is income and the right to vote.
3) It doesn't make any sense to me that rentiers free ride on the labour of others. Do they not have to pay for the goods and services they use?
- nickpsecurity 10y ago" The prices of the shares are largely based on the value of the company. " The perceived value of the company you mean. This site regularly discusses companies that make almost nothing with huge valuations. Like with shares, once they're sold they generally benefit a few financially who play the game yet again. Very little is created in the process. Whereas, the instances that have capitalists investing into new businesses or expansions in old ones do typically create some value for the economy. The capitalists also stand to make money, too. World of difference.
- jsprogrammer 10y agoShelter and land are not a service but a physical resource.
- ommunist 10y agoYour ATF in your muscle cells is not a service but physical resource. But what if its release molecular mechanics will be patented? Shall you pay for your every muscular contraction to a patent holder? I do not stop to fascinate about the very concept of owning the land. How can you own something that preexisted the monkey your ancestors originated from? The answer to this question is the key to understand what are the super rich and why you are living in the city.
- onetimeusename 10y agoThey are a physical resource but renting them is subject to contractual agreements between parties because what is actually being paid for is a _right_ to use land not the land itself. A renter must provide maintenance of a property for example. Another way to think of it is to say that a taxi provides a service temporarily, not the physical car itself. Renting is similar.
- jsprogrammer 10y agoYeah, selling a right to use land is not a service either. It is literal trolling.
- onetimeusename 10y agoIf renting things is trolling then the world is full of trolls. If the solution to this is to confiscate resources for collective government to control, all that is being done is transferring the right to rent from one group of trolls to another. Then we have to start debating which group of trolls we would prefer to negotiate with. I already have my answer for that one.
- jsprogrammer 10y agoI'm not sure all renting is trolling, but I do agree that the world is full of trolls. I said nothing about confiscation, government control, or transferrence of (made up) rights.