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>Rent seeking can't and won't last [because] too many people have more comfort, want too many things, and are harder to control - and now more than ever. That'
by zeteo 14y ago
>Rent seeking can't and won't last [because] too many people have more comfort, want too many things, and are harder to control - and now more than ever.
That's a rather pie-in-the-sky argument. People pursue rent-seeking because it gives them comfort, material goods, and freedom. The businessman who lobbies for monopolistic benefits, the politician who takes his campaign contributions, the copywriter who creates attack ads: they all follow egotistic interests. Wild, unregulated, snake-oil-and-corporate-trusts capitalism is no solution to these problems.
- waps 14y ago> In the modern world, natural resources are the limiting factor of production. It takes only a tiny percentage of the population to farm the arable land, mine iron ore, cut down and process the timber, and extract the oil. A somewhat larger percent converts those resources into the necessities of life – bread, vehicles, homes, roads, bridges, clothing, furniture, stocked grocery aisles, appliances, etc. The worker entering the economy has a problem. They must find a source of income so they can access resources and manufactured goods. But there are no unexploited resources and no surplus jobs to be had processing those resources. They need a job, but their labor is surplus and unnecessary. This is the real problem. Everyone but a tiny percentage of the population is ... well ... not needed at all.