4 ms·

I'm not sure if I would call profiting off of an intangible invention or creation "rent". Is profiting by selling other property rent? Such as your labor? Or y

I'm not sure if I would call profiting off of an intangible invention or creation "rent". Is profiting by selling other property rent? Such as your labor? Or your used car? It's a lot easier to steal your music or your blueprints than it is to steal physical property, but that doesn't change the fact that it's all still property, at least in my mind. And society seems to work best when theft is at a minimum.

scoopertrooper 5y ago
If I build a bridge across a river and setup a toll booth, then yes, I should expect a return that reflects the capital, time, and risk I took in constructing the bridge. However, when I abuse my monopoly over the bridge to extract a return in excess of that, then I'm seeking economic rent. Renting out a property is (by definition) a form of rent seeking, but it only becomes a problem when rent seekers have monopolistic market power as the rents they seek cannot be restrained by normal market forces. One only needs to look at the consolidation of the movie industry to see such power in action. I'm not defending intellectual property theft, I'm (quite modestly) suggesting that rights holders should pay a surcharge (similar to real property taxes) in return for the state allowing for them to extract monopolistic profits from their copyright holdings.