Prosper Australia

A grasp of economic rent is vital to understanding geoism and the path to social justice and environmental sanity.

Short definitions are helpful but limited – the return to privilege; a free ride at society’s expense; unearned increment; excess profits that monopolists reap in the absence of competition; income derived from assets that cannot be freely produced by private economic agents; income (real or imputed) that cannot be justified as an incentive for private economic agents; or even the natural source of revenue for the community.

Sydney’s David Smiley continues his series wherein he fleshes out the meaning of rent through a string of vivid historical examples.

David Smiley

writes:
Most history books attempt to explain progress, poverty and conflict in terms of charismatic actors and political events, seldom in terms of fundamental causes. It is therefore refreshing to find, in A Traveller’s History of Italy (Lintner, V. 1989, Gloucestershire, Windrush Press), explanations in terms of land ownership.
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Price of housing outstrips rent (12/03/07).

Remember that whilst rents haven’t kept pace with house prices , neither have wages. Landlords have many other advantages such as negative gearing (at around $2.4billion dollars p.a in subsidy to the property lobby, mainly coming from lower & middle class citizens who could never dream to afford a ‘Tax Minimising lawyer/ accountant’).

Landlords also have the ability to increase their borrowing capacity on an appreciating property. A 154% increase over 15 years and still they aren’t happy?

Don’t forget to see this MUST SEE videocast from the ABC’s MediaWatch on “Who is really raising the rent?”.