4 ms·
The whole economy isn't built on rent seeking behavior, but rent seekers are largely in charge and are molding it to better fit their interests, even though it
by crdoconnor 9y ago
The whole economy isn't built on rent seeking behavior, but rent seekers are largely in charge and are molding it to better fit their interests, even though it already serves their interests very well. Trump (a property developer) is a fairly good example of this.
As with all parasitic systems, sometimes the host is killed and sometimes the host fights back.
Right now the host doesn't appear to be fighting back very effectively.
- emiliobumachar 9y agoThere's a lot to hate about Trump, but I'm confused by that example. Property development is building, in perhaps the most literal sense. Trump Towers are actual things that provide tangible value. I don't know if their valuations are sane or if the processes used were ethical, it that what you were aiming at?
- crdoconnor 9y agoProperty development conflates building construction which does provide tangible value with land value rent extraction and speculation, which does not. The latter is largely how Trump managed to grow his wealth; he's pretty bad at the former. This provides a good summary of this principle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgism