Stupid Economists, already making your points for you: > An example of rent-seeking in a modern economy is spending money on lobbying for government subsidies

Stupid Economists, already making your points for you: > An example of rent-seeking in a modern economy is spending money on lobbying for government subsidies in order to be given wealth that has already been created, or to impose regulations on competitors, in order to increase market share. > The concept of rent-seeking would also apply to corruption of bureaucrats who solicit and extract "bribe" or "rent" for applying their legal but discretionary authority for awarding legitimate or illegitimate benefits to clients. What is it about a feudal lord or moneylender that the way they spend money is better than the way the merchants would have spent it? Further, just because the money has downstream effects doesn't mean that it was rightfully earned. All of your arguments could equally apply to pirates or bankrobbers. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking