Rentier capitalism

Rentier capitalism is a term used in Marxism and sociology which refers to a type of capitalism where a large amount of profit-income generated takes the form of property income, received as interest, intellectual property rights, rents, dividends, fees, or capital gains.^{[citation needed]}

The beneficiaries of this income are a property-owning social class who, it is argued, play no productive role in the economy themselves but who monopolise the access to physical assets, financial assets, and technologies. They make money not from producing anything new themselves, but purely from their ownership of property (which provides a claim to a revenue stream) and dealing in that property.^{[citation needed]}

Often the term rentier capitalism is used with the connotation that it is a form of parasitism or a decadent form of capitalism.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Rentier state

Bibliography

• Robert Pollin, "Resurrection of the Rentier", in New Left Review 46, July–August 2007, pp. 140–153.