Rentier class

Extracted Attributes

• Field

  Political Economy, Marxist Economics, Heterodox Economics

• Key Critique

  Extracts economic surplus without engaging in productive labor or enterprise, creating barriers to tech-driven abundance

• Primary Income Source

  Asset yield, economic rent, interest, dividends, and real estate leases

• Associated Economic Model

  Rentier capitalism

• Conceptual Originator (Rentier Capitalism)

  Hans Bobek

Timeline

• The term 'rentier' enters common usage in the mid-19th century to identify individuals living off revenue derived from property rather than productive creation. (Source: Demos)

  1850-01-01

• Historical Materialism publishes research examining how the rentier class and corporate rent-generating assets reshape modern economic class structures and inequality. (Source: Historical Materialism)

  2021-06-01

Rentier capitalism

Rentier capitalism is a concept in Marxist and heterodox economics that refers to rent-seeking and exploitation by companies in capitalist systems. The term was developed by Austrian social geographer Hans Bobek describing an economic system that was widespread in antiquity and still widespread in the Middle East, where productive investments are largely lacking and the highest possible share of income is skimmed off from ground-rents, leases and rents. Consequently, in many developing countries, rentier capitalism is an obstacle to economic development. A rentier is someone who earns income from capital without working. This is generally done through ownership of assets that generate yield (cash generated by assets), such as rental properties, shares in dividend-paying companies, or bonds that pay interest.

Web Search Results

• Class, Rentier

  Rentier is a class of people who derive their incomes from financial titles to property. they own a variety of anonymous income-earning assets, most typically

• Rentier class

  That strata of a society whose members own assets that they loan (*rent) to others in order to receive an income stream that, in normal economic conditions,

• Rentier capitalism - Wikipedia

  Rentier capitalism is a concept in Marxist and heterodox economics that refers to rent-seeking and exploitation by companies in capitalist systems. The term was developed by Austrian social geographer Hans Bobek describing an economic system that was widespread in antiquity and still widespread in the Middle East, where productive investments are largely lacking and the highest possible share of income is skimmed off from ground-rents, leases and rents. Consequently, in many developing countries, rentier capitalism is an obstacle to economic development. A rentier is someone who earns income from capital without working. This is generally done through ownership of assets that generate yield "Yield (finance)") (cash generated by assets), such as rental properties, shares "Share (finance)") [...] > Hence the extraordinary growth of a class, or rather, of a stratum of rentiers, i.e., people who live by 'clipping coupons' [in the sense of collecting interest payments on bonds], who take no part in any enterprise whatever, whose profession is idleness. The export of capital, one of the most essential economic bases of imperialism, still more completely isolates the rentiers from production and sets the seal of parasitism on the whole country that lives by exploiting the labour of several overseas countries and colonies. ## Current usage [edit] [...] ## Current usage [edit] In contemporary discourse, the term “rentier capitalist” refers to any individual, firm, or even oligarchy, actors that increasingly derive income from the ownership of products. Whereby they rent such products and generate unproductive capital, creating gaps in economic productivity while simultaneously increasing revenue. The term rentier state is mainly used not in its original meaning, as an imperialistic state thriving on labor of other countries and colonies, but as a state which derives all or a substantial portion of its national revenues from the rent of indigenous resources to external clients.

• Class, Assets and Work in Rentier Capitalism in: Historical Materialism Volume 29 Issue 2 (2021)

  ‘Rentier capitalism’ is the term increasingly used to describe economies dominated by rentiers, rents, and rent-generating assets. A growing body of scholarship considers how the ownership of such assets by individuals and households is reshaping patterns of class and inequality and accordingly requires the reconceptualisation of the latter phenomena. The significance of company-owned assets and corporate rents for class, inequality and their conceptualisation has not been considered, however. This article offers an exploratory investigation along these lines, highlighting the importance of employees’ working relationship to company-owned, rent-generating assets for their class position. The article further reflects on how developments in this regard might be approached from the [...] ‘Rentier capitalism’ is the term increasingly used to describe economies dominated by rentiers, rents, and rent-generating assets. A growing body of scholarship considers how the ownership of such assets by individuals and households is reshaping patterns of class and inequality and accordingly requires the reconceptualisation of the latter phenomena. The significance of company-owned assets and corporate rents for class, inequality and their conceptualisation has not been considered, however. This article offers an exploratory investigation along these lines, highlighting the importance of employees’ working relationship to company-owned, rent-generating assets for their class position. The article further reflects on how developments in this regard might be approached from the [...] ‘Rentier capitalism’ is the term increasingly used to describe economies dominated by rentiers, rents, and rent-generating assets. A growing body of scholarship considers how the ownership of such assets by individuals and households is reshaping patterns of class and inequality and accordingly requires the reconceptualisation of the latter phenomena. The significance of company-owned assets and corporate rents for class, inequality and their conceptualisation has not been considered, however. This article offers an exploratory investigation along these lines, highlighting the importance of employees’ working relationship to company-owned, rent-generating assets for their class position. The article further reflects on how developments in this regard might be approached from the

• The Rise of Rentier Capitalism | Demos

  instead, we have a wealthy class with the culture of new money and innovativeness of old money (i.e., rather little of either). This new rentier class, with little to offer society, subsists largely on legalized grift or, in economic terms, rent. [...] form of inherited fortunes, is supplanting dynamism, hard work and innovation. The term rentier came into use in the mid-19th century to describe people who lived off income from property rather than creating something of value. And now the rentiers have found a way to protect their gains—buying influence in the political system. [...] Richard Hofstadter observed about American capitalism, “Once great men created fortunes; today a great system creates fortunate men.” This was what Fitzgerald saw in the 1920s: dead, inherited wealth next to dynamic new money. He saw the former as aristocratic, with only the facade of knowledge and virtue, while the latter was entirely uninterested in wisdom and seduced by wealth. Oscar Wilde observed the same in Victorian England, where the illusion of virtue (being named Earnest) was far more important than its practice. Today, much the same dynamic exists between the inherited rentier wealth of the Kochs and Waltons and the new money of the Zuckerbergs and Brins. There was a day when aristocrats were at least cultured. Today, instead, we have a wealthy class with the culture of new