haven't economists talked about how, in general, charging rent is not really creating economic value? patent trolls, landlords, rich investors, for example... a

haven't economists talked about how, in general, charging rent is not really creating economic value? patent trolls, landlords, rich investors, for example... all to some degree just rake it in based on what they already have. When economists talk about rents and rent -seeking behavior, that's somewhat different from the common meaning of "rent". So for example you can get a monopoly rent by having all your (smaller) competitors regulated our of existence even if nothing is being rented in the traditional sense, while a landlord renting out properties in a healthy competitive market won't receive any economic rent.