>The latter is providing economic value (maybe, maybe not) through mere ownership (rent-collection) I want to point out that "rents" are something else than co

>The latter is providing economic value (maybe, maybe not) through mere ownership (rent-collection) I want to point out that "rents" are something else than collecting dividends. People who hold equities are not rent-seekers(for the most part). They are compensated for taking on risk in the economy. This serves a real, very important, function. Rents are when political/other power is used to extract money out of a situation that you do not contribute to in any way. E.g. tax prep companies lobbying to make filing taxes complicated so their business can have a problem to exist for. That sort of behavior does nothing to contribute, it it is zero sum(no net wealth is generated by this behavior for anyone), as rents tend to be. Not to be confused with rent, that you pay for living in a property, which is something completely different.