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Your first assumption is totally wrong. In which "ideal world" would rent-seeking be eliminated ? Beside a totalitarian world, I really do not see how you can e

Your first assumption is totally wrong. In which "ideal world" would rent-seeking be eliminated ? Beside a totalitarian world, I really do not see how you can eliminate this type of behavior. Even in that world, you would do nothing but create an unequal society where elites, unchecked, would be the new "rich" (a few hundred years-time worth of "communist regiment" experiments proves it, including to this very day).

tmnvix 9y ago
> Some income inequality is due to rent-seeking behaviour and some is due to variance in productivity. The above statement is "totally wrong"? How can you be so sure?
- alacombe 9y ago
  no, the assumption that eliminating rent-seeking behavior could be achieved. As per the wikipedia description: "idea of rent-seeking was developed by Gordon Tullock in 1967.[2] The expression rent-seeking was coined in 1974 by Anne Krueger.[3] The word "rent" does not as a rule refer here to payment on a lease but stems instead from Adam Smith's division of incomes into profit, wage, and rent.[4] The origin of the term refers to gaining control of land or other natural resources." [emphasis mine] Whether it is a pseudo "public" Government or a Private individual, the behavior of "rent-seeking" is the same, ie. resource's control.
  - yorwba 9y ago
    The use of "ideal world" pretty much indicates that they don't think elimination of rent-seeking is actually achievable.
  - kbenson 9y ago
    I can't help but think you might be mistaken in your interpretation of what the original commenter meant by "in an ideal world" and possibly also by how the term "rent-seeking" is being used in this conversation. I'm struggling to understand how your not seeing how you can eliminate this type of behavior in practice relates to what is, by definition, perfection, and often just the idea of it.
dredmorbius 9y ago
By taxing rents.

tmnvix 9y ago

> Some income inequality is due to rent-seeking behaviour and some is due to variance in productivity. The above statement is "totally wrong"? How can you be so sure?

alacombe 9y ago
no, the assumption that eliminating rent-seeking behavior could be achieved. As per the wikipedia description: "idea of rent-seeking was developed by Gordon Tullock in 1967.[2] The expression rent-seeking was coined in 1974 by Anne Krueger.[3] The word "rent" does not as a rule refer here to payment on a lease but stems instead from Adam Smith's division of incomes into profit, wage, and rent.[4] The origin of the term refers to gaining control of land or other natural resources." [emphasis mine] Whether it is a pseudo "public" Government or a Private individual, the behavior of "rent-seeking" is the same, ie. resource's control.
- yorwba 9y ago
  The use of "ideal world" pretty much indicates that they don't think elimination of rent-seeking is actually achievable.
- kbenson 9y ago
  I can't help but think you might be mistaken in your interpretation of what the original commenter meant by "in an ideal world" and possibly also by how the term "rent-seeking" is being used in this conversation. I'm struggling to understand how your not seeing how you can eliminate this type of behavior in practice relates to what is, by definition, perfection, and often just the idea of it.

dredmorbius 9y ago

By taxing rents.