Comment by Plasmoid
4 days ago
But rent-seeking isn't renting. They're different terms that don't have anything to do with each anymore.
> Rent-seeking is the act of growing one's existing wealth by manipulating public policy or economic conditions without creating new wealth. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking)
This definition doesn't overlap with renting.
The term has been generalized in economics to refer to more cases than just rent paid to live on or farm a piece of land.
I blame econonists for reusing the same word to mean different things.