Have you ever heard of the term “economic rent”? No? That’s probably because of the greatest political coup in the history of our republic. In politics, true power comes – not from your argument – but from the ability to steer the conversation to what you want to talk about and away from what you don’t want to talk about. The true elites in our society have continued “winning” the political debate by removing a very important concept from the political conversation.I admit, reading the term, “economic rent” can cause eyes to glaze over quickly. A more accurate description is “unearned income”. It is people and companies who make money by doing zero work and risk little or none of their own assets....
Read the rest at Daily Kos, Time to resurrect an old idea: Economic Rent by Madddog
Looks like Maddog has been reading Henry George and Michael Hudson. Judging from the comments, he's gotten some progressives fired up about it.
Update: see also Simon Patten on Public Infrastructure and Economic Rent Capture by Michael Hudson
(h/t GLH in comments)
Tom Hickey: I thought you were on vacation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the article on economic rent. You might want to post the article from Michael Hudson " Simon Patten on Public Infrastructure and Economic Rent Capture."
Hi GLH, I said I'd post intermittently as time allows, but part of the time I won't have an internet connection at all. Thanks for reminding me about the Hudson post. I'll add it above.
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