"Rent-Seeking" Isn't About The Landlord Coming Down To See Where Your Check Is
It's a term that's been in the news lately, and I had to look it up and I thought you might like to know, too.
From EconLib.org, per David R. Henderson, it describes...
...people's lobbying of government to give them special privileges. A much better term is "privilege seeking."
From my two semesters of econ, my big takeaway was that economists, to protect their monopoly, and make economics seem more difficult than it is, gave almost all of their core concepts names that mean very little to the layman.
The one I hated the most:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_account
jerry at April 15, 2013 11:37 PM
You mean like the people who produce Turbo Tax spending millions on lobbying the government? you think if income taxes were streamlined (or replaced by a consumption tax) their business model might be jeopardized?
I R A Darth Aggie at April 16, 2013 6:16 AM
As I'm used to seeing it, the phrase mainly refers to people who, via government connections or other forms of acquired power, can put obstacles into the way of something that you want to do. They provide no product or service. You have to pay them to stay out of your way. Unlike blackmailers or protection rackets, their behavior is technically legal because of some granted privilege.
An example: Say you want to operate a dance club. You have to get a performing rights license for the music that you play at the club. There are three performing rights organizations in the U.S.: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. Now let's say you are going to screen all of your music so that you only play music that is ASCAP-licensed. Can you avoid having to buy licenses from BMI and SESAC? Nope. Under existing law, you must pay all three of them.
Cousin Dave at April 16, 2013 10:18 AM
What I want to know is why is the federal government different from the mafia?
Jim P. at April 16, 2013 8:40 PM
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