Rent-seeking is not exactly uncontroversial amongst economists (though some claim it only occurs through state intervention, which is a view I don't share). The

Rent-seeking is not exactly uncontroversial amongst economists (though some claim it only occurs through state intervention, which is a view I don't share). The most egregious examples are fee-simple ground rents (Adam Smith called a landlord's right to rents a "monopoly price... apportioned to what the farmer can afford to pay"); and many forms of patents (eg, "discovering" a certain curvature of rounded corners, or a "one-click buy button"). There's certainly an argument that some forms of rent are net-productive ways to create markets for labor exchange, which would be difficult to capture otherwise, so I'm not arguing against rent as a broad category: only that some rents are unearned, and therefore a net drag on real wealth creation.