Rent-seeking: Difference between revisions

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→‎Description: Shift in emphasis necessary as rent-seeking is not by nature either state driven or not state driven. Even this subtle hype of the former may lead to the overlooking of rent-seeking as an occurance in cases with no -- or no direct -- state link.
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[[File:PapalPolitics2.JPG|thumb|''Antichristus'',<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NMQ_Ar84DCcC |title=Passional Christi und Antichristi |last1=Luther |first1=Martin |year=1521 }}</ref> a woodcut by [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]], of the pope using the temporal power to grant authority to a ruler contributing generously to the Catholic Church]]
 
The classic example of rent-seeking, according to [[Robert Shiller]], is that of a property owner who installs a chain across a river that flows through theirhis land and then hires a collector to charge passing boats a fee to lower the chain. There is nothing productive about the chain or the collector, nor do passing boats get anything in return. The owner has made no improvements to the river and is not adding value in any way, directly or indirectly, except for themselveshimself. All theyhe areis doing is finding a way [[Parasitism|to obtain money]] from something that used to be free.<ref>{{cite web |last=Shiller |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Shiller |date=20 September 2013 |title=The Best, Brightest and Least Productive? |url=http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-rent-seeking-problem-in-contemporary-finance-by-robert-j--shiller |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016052828/https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/the-rent-seeking-problem-in-contemporary-finance-by-robert-j--shiller-2013-09 |archive-date=October 16, 2021 |website=project-syndicate.org |publisher=[[Project Syndicate]]}}</ref>
 
An example of rent-seeking in a modern economy is spending money on lobbying for government subsidies to be given wealth that has already been created, or to impose regulations on competitors, to increase one's own market share.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Samples |first1=John |title=An Introduction to Rent Seeking |url= https://www.libertarianism.org/blog/introduction-rent-seeking |work=libertarianism.org |date=May 30, 2012 }}</ref> Another example of rent-seeking is the limiting of access to lucrative occupations, as by medieval [[guild]]s or modern state certifications and [[licensure]]s. According to some libertarian perspectives, taxi licensing is a textbook example of rent-seeking.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McTaggart |first1=Douglas |title=Economics |date=2012 |publisher= Pearson Higher Education |isbn=978-1-4425-5077-3 |page=224}}</ref> To the extent that the issuing of licenses constrains overall supply of taxi services (rather than ensuring competence or quality), forbidding competition from other [[vehicles for hire]] renders the (otherwise consensual) transaction of taxi service a forced transfer of part of the fee, from customers to taxi business proprietors.