3 ms·

> rent seeking media companies Rent seeking? Media companies that actually create content are rent seeking? Versus the garbage hallucinations AI creates?

stuckinhell 3y ago
The New York Times is dying company that is rent seeking here. Along time ago, their content was valuable, yet now you can't even give it away to researchers. I know because they tried to make a deal with my company, we passed because social media data is infinitely more valuable.
- ciabattabread 3y ago
  Because its usefulness to your private jet fund is the only measurement of value.
- ruune 3y ago
  You don't want to seriously tell me that garbage on Twitter in 240 characters is more useful to me than actual journalism, do you? Maybe their data isn't as valuable to eg. advertisers than the data their audience actually shouted into the internet themselves (guess what), but the thing they've been actually selling for a long time now, journalism, can't be dying that fast considering we're both on this website that in big parts consists of discussing journalism.
- gpvos 3y ago
  To me, your comment only reinforces the point that NYT's content is actually valuable, rather than valuable to rent seekers. But maybe you can give a bit more detail.
amadeuspagel 3y ago
Rent seeking is an awful term that was from the beginning intended to describe anyone pursing a political or legal goal that deviates from a pure free market economy. As Econlib writes: > ”Rent seeking” is one of the most important insights in the last fifty years of economics and, unfortunately, one of the most inappropriately labeled. Gordon Tullock originated the idea in 1967, and Anne Krueger introduced the label in 1974. The idea is simple but powerful. People are said to seek rents when they try to obtain benefits for themselves through the political arena. They typically do so by getting a subsidy for a good they produce or for being in a particular class of people, by getting a tariff on a good they produce, or by getting a special regulation that hampers their competitors. Elderly people, for example, often seek higher Social Security payments; steel producers often seek restrictions on imports of steel; and licensed electricians and doctors often lobby to keep regulations in place that restrict competition from unlicensed electricians or doctors. https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RentSeeking.html https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RentSeeking.html This is linked in the wikipedia article, which is even more confused: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking
- bugglebeetle 3y ago
  No, it dates back to Adam Smith’s conception of rents derived from land-ownership as a parasitic drag on economies (about which he was entirely correct). This concept was later extended to a whole host of other forms of monopolization, some state-granted and some market-derived. In the case of U.S. copyright, we can look at its original terms (quite limited) and see that its current incarnation is more harmful than beneficial to most people.

stuckinhell 3y ago

The New York Times is dying company that is rent seeking here. Along time ago, their content was valuable, yet now you can't even give it away to researchers. I know because they tried to make a deal with my company, we passed because social media data is infinitely more valuable.

ciabattabread 3y ago
Because its usefulness to your private jet fund is the only measurement of value.
ruune 3y ago
You don't want to seriously tell me that garbage on Twitter in 240 characters is more useful to me than actual journalism, do you? Maybe their data isn't as valuable to eg. advertisers than the data their audience actually shouted into the internet themselves (guess what), but the thing they've been actually selling for a long time now, journalism, can't be dying that fast considering we're both on this website that in big parts consists of discussing journalism.
gpvos 3y ago
To me, your comment only reinforces the point that NYT's content is actually valuable, rather than valuable to rent seekers. But maybe you can give a bit more detail.

amadeuspagel 3y ago

Rent seeking is an awful term that was from the beginning intended to describe anyone pursing a political or legal goal that deviates from a pure free market economy. As Econlib writes: > ”Rent seeking” is one of the most important insights in the last fifty years of economics and, unfortunately, one of the most inappropriately labeled. Gordon Tullock originated the idea in 1967, and Anne Krueger introduced the label in 1974. The idea is simple but powerful. People are said to seek rents when they try to obtain benefits for themselves through the political arena. They typically do so by getting a subsidy for a good they produce or for being in a particular class of people, by getting a tariff on a good they produce, or by getting a special regulation that hampers their competitors. Elderly people, for example, often seek higher Social Security payments; steel producers often seek restrictions on imports of steel; and licensed electricians and doctors often lobby to keep regulations in place that restrict competition from unlicensed electricians or doctors. https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RentSeeking.html https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/RentSeeking.html This is linked in the wikipedia article, which is even more confused: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking

bugglebeetle 3y ago
No, it dates back to Adam Smith’s conception of rents derived from land-ownership as a parasitic drag on economies (about which he was entirely correct). This concept was later extended to a whole host of other forms of monopolization, some state-granted and some market-derived. In the case of U.S. copyright, we can look at its original terms (quite limited) and see that its current incarnation is more harmful than beneficial to most people.