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This is not what people traditionally think of as "rent-seeking." Rent-seeking behavior is doing something to get more money without providing any corresponding

This is not what people traditionally think of as "rent-seeking." Rent-seeking behavior is doing something to get more money without providing any corresponding value. AirBnb hosts do provide value -- just not to the people who live in the neighborhood. But it is fine to argue that, based on their willingness to pay more, out of town visitors provide better utilization of the housing resource. TL;DR: Extracting rents from things you own by providing economic value to a customer is not "rent-seeking."

deleted 8y ago
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CryptoPunk 8y ago
Exactly. Banning people from renting out their place on Airbnb is actually what's rent-seeking. It means you get to enjoy lower rent, but at the expense of the unit's full economic potential being utilized. In economic terms, if a unit can fetch a higher rent being rented short term, then it provides more economic value as a short term rental, and laws preventing that reduce economic utility.
bobthepanda 8y ago
Short-term, <90 day accomodations are not "housing", and never have been considered as such. That's why they're in a completely different regulatory category and always have been. In a democracy it makes sense that a city would prioritize the needs of the citizens who live and vote there over short-termers and people looking to make a quick buck.
- sdhgaiojfsa 8y ago
  I'm not commenting on the validity of the policy, only one whether rent-seeking is the correct term to describe lending one's property out on AirBnb.
atom_arranger 8y ago
Extracting rents from things you own is literally "rent-seeking". It's the definition of "rent-seeking". You can argue the pros and cons or rent-seeking or of Airbnb, but "rent-seeking" clearly covers Airbnb.
- sdhgaiojfsa 8y ago
  No, that is not the definition of rent seeking. The definition of rent seeking is: "In economics and in public-choice theory, rent-seeking involves seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth." An example of rent-seeking would be lobbying against the construction of new housing to inflate the value of one's own home. A non-example of rent-seeking would be renting your house out to someone else. More from Wikipedia/economics 101: "Rent-seeking is distinguished in theory from profit-seeking, in which entities seek to extract value by engaging in mutually beneficial transactions . . ." such as a transaction between a property owner and someone seeking to rent that property for temporary use.
  - atom_arranger 8y ago
    There's more than one definition of the term. I do agree that the definition and examples you are using are common. "In economics and in public-choice theory, rent-seeking involves seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth." - Wikipedia I would say that applies to making a profit off of property one owns by charging people to use it.
    - sdhgaiojfsa 8y ago
      All passive investing is rent seeking under that interpretation of that sentence.
      - atom_arranger 8y ago
        I would consider all passive investing rent seeking. Or at the very least a kind of rent. Just a quote from an article that sort of illustrates the attitude I have towards it: > One disturbing implication of Thomas Piketty’s new book, Capital, is that the American economy is slipping into a form of “rentier” capitalism, in which passive income from wealth, increasingly in the form of inherited fortunes, is supplanting dynamism, hard work and innovation. - https://qz.com/196575/to-get-rich-forget-entrepreneurship-and-marry-wealthy/ https://qz.com/196575/to-get-rich-forget-entrepreneurship-an... Apparently I'm not the only person with this attitude, although this poster was down-voted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13151809 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13151809 There's also some links there. I do use passive investing, but I do consider it a kind of rent and I think society might be better off with less of it.

deleted 8y ago

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CryptoPunk 8y ago

Exactly. Banning people from renting out their place on Airbnb is actually what's rent-seeking. It means you get to enjoy lower rent, but at the expense of the unit's full economic potential being utilized. In economic terms, if a unit can fetch a higher rent being rented short term, then it provides more economic value as a short term rental, and laws preventing that reduce economic utility.

bobthepanda 8y ago

Short-term, <90 day accomodations are not "housing", and never have been considered as such. That's why they're in a completely different regulatory category and always have been. In a democracy it makes sense that a city would prioritize the needs of the citizens who live and vote there over short-termers and people looking to make a quick buck.

sdhgaiojfsa 8y ago
I'm not commenting on the validity of the policy, only one whether rent-seeking is the correct term to describe lending one's property out on AirBnb.

atom_arranger 8y ago

Extracting rents from things you own is literally "rent-seeking". It's the definition of "rent-seeking". You can argue the pros and cons or rent-seeking or of Airbnb, but "rent-seeking" clearly covers Airbnb.

sdhgaiojfsa 8y ago
No, that is not the definition of rent seeking. The definition of rent seeking is: "In economics and in public-choice theory, rent-seeking involves seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth." An example of rent-seeking would be lobbying against the construction of new housing to inflate the value of one's own home. A non-example of rent-seeking would be renting your house out to someone else. More from Wikipedia/economics 101: "Rent-seeking is distinguished in theory from profit-seeking, in which entities seek to extract value by engaging in mutually beneficial transactions . . ." such as a transaction between a property owner and someone seeking to rent that property for temporary use.
- atom_arranger 8y ago
  There's more than one definition of the term. I do agree that the definition and examples you are using are common. "In economics and in public-choice theory, rent-seeking involves seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth." - Wikipedia I would say that applies to making a profit off of property one owns by charging people to use it.
  - sdhgaiojfsa 8y ago
    All passive investing is rent seeking under that interpretation of that sentence.
    - atom_arranger 8y ago
      I would consider all passive investing rent seeking. Or at the very least a kind of rent. Just a quote from an article that sort of illustrates the attitude I have towards it: > One disturbing implication of Thomas Piketty’s new book, Capital, is that the American economy is slipping into a form of “rentier” capitalism, in which passive income from wealth, increasingly in the form of inherited fortunes, is supplanting dynamism, hard work and innovation. - https://qz.com/196575/to-get-rich-forget-entrepreneurship-and-marry-wealthy/ https://qz.com/196575/to-get-rich-forget-entrepreneurship-an... Apparently I'm not the only person with this attitude, although this poster was down-voted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13151809 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13151809 There's also some links there. I do use passive investing, but I do consider it a kind of rent and I think society might be better off with less of it.