Rentier

Rentier capitalism is a concept in Marxist and heterodox economics to refer to rent-seeking and exploitation by companies in capitalist systems.[1][2][3] The term was developed by Austrian social geographer Hans Bobek[4] 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. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rentier_capitalism

In current political-science and international-relations theory, a rentier state (/ˈrɒntieɪ/ RON-tee-ay or /rɒ̃ˈtjeɪ/) is a state which derives all or a substantial portion of its national revenues from the economic rent paid by foreign individuals, concerns or governments.[1] The academic use of the term rentier states and rentier states theories (RST) became well known after the works of Hazem El Beblawi and Giacomo Luciani on the development of oil-rich countries, known as petrostates, in the Persian Gulf.[2] They show that rentier states receive income without an increase in the productivity of the domestic economy or political development of the state, that is, the ability to tax citizens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rentier_state

cf resource curse

Paul Krugman (2014): What struck me, looking at what Keynes wrote, were his remarks on interest rates and the return to capital: low rates of interest, he suggested, "would mean the euthanasia of the rentier, and, consequently, the euthanasia of the cumulative oppressive power of the capitalist to exploit the scarcity-value of capital". Actually, for now at least profits remain high — but bond yields are very low. What Keynes didn’t say, but now seems obvious, is that the rentiers are unlikely to accept their euthanasia gracefully. And therein, I’d argue, lies the ultimate explanation of the persistent clamor for monetary tightening despite weak economies and low inflation.

• Thomas Piketty (2014) in his recent book on Capital in the Twenty-First Century, embraces neoclassical production theory but argues that the return to capital does not need to fall by very much as it becomes more abundant relative to labor because substitution between these two factors is easy (details below). The rentier class can then use its power to increase its share of total wealth to a level approaching one hundred percent.