Rent-seeking Elites

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

Anyone else notice that economists hurl their dirtiest word ('rent-seeker') at outsiders but don't use it much while infighting?

2:29 AM · Sep 25, 2009

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

IDEA: Freshwater and Saltwater economists model each other as rent-seeking rent seekers, seeking rents. Best model wins it all. #notears

2:37 AM · Sep 25, 2009

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

Years ago, Sherwin Rosen (UChicago) smugly suggested to NAS that scientists be modeled as cattle slaughtered in cycles. #econocharm

2:57 AM · Sep 25, 2009

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

What can I say: I love science! No one has ever had as good of a time as a paper's respondent as I had that day at NAS. Ahhh. #goodtimes

3:07 AM · Sep 25, 2009

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

Thinking of confronting my landlord over rent seeking behavior. Seems like an airtight argument.

4:48 PM · Sep 13, 2016

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

I am >80% aligned here. A main counter surrounds the fear that 4 Yrs of more rent-seeking boomer crypto-sanctimony breeds a troll majority. https://t.co/jTLCPp4JBi

3:27 AM · Oct 14, 2016

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

Why pin this poll to the top of my twitter? It was for this moment: almost 50% of respondents were restrictionist *xenophiles* & not phobes!

3:35 PM · Nov 09, 2016

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

Two different questions:
Q1) Are you more of a xenophile or a xenophobe?
Q2) Do you want immigration to your country expanded or restricted?

12:19 AM · Oct 26, 2016

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

In short quadrant II) first principles thinkers and contrarians are rebelling against the dupe / rent seeking alliance *without* xenophobia.

3:37 PM · Nov 09, 2016

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

@AlexRussek He likely may be. But in this avatar he is first the wrecking ball.

7:48 PM · Nov 09, 2016

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

Why do I always target "the rent-seeking elite" rather than "the elite"?

B/C the two groups are bitter rivals & we need the latter to win.

6:19 PM · Nov 18, 2016

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

2017 confessions:

A) Just because you get trolling doesn’t somehow make it awesome.

B) Just because the rent-seeking experts are corrupt doesn’t make me want to kill off our institutions.

C) I don’t want to have to care about Trump/tweets. It’s a waste of millions of minds.

1:58 AM · Jan 1, 2018

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

@normonics @Gore_Burnelli @EricWeinstein How do you feel about elite surgeons?

Elite special forces?

Elite athletes?

Elite pilots?

Elite Scientists and Researchers?

Forget the word elite. Yes, we need to recognize outliers rather than have the fake & rent-seeking elite privatize the true outliers who threaten them.

7:34 PM · Feb 14, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

@normonics @Gore_Burnelli @EricWeinstein Your true elite want to do a lot for the world. The rent-seeking elite find this terrifying. You don’t want me doing amateur brain surgery on your child because you want to democratize everything. I’m just not an elite musician so I let the top rise.There are limits to inclusion.

7:39 PM · Feb 14, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

@ScotchOikos He is musing about a cap on all wealth at the level of wealth itself. Not on rent-seeking or abuse of wealth.

No billionaires could mean no Howard Hughes grants. No University of Chicago. No Rockefeller university. To me, this is not something to be tossed off lightly.

10:46 PM · Sep 26, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

@ScotchOikos I see. I have a pretty positive view of people like @patrickc for example. Sincere. Grounded. Brilliant. Generous. Generative. They work their asses off, and manage risk.

Can’t imagine wanting to complain about these kind of people. Can’t wait to see what he may do for the 🌎.

10:59 PM · Sep 26, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

I can’t believe the number of followers I have who either believe Billionaires are intrinsically deserving or non-deserving simply by virtue of their wealth. We have areas where markets work beautifully & others where they are pathological. And no one knows what to do about that.

3:57 PM · Oct 2, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

The desire to make the issue go away is what is fascinating. Deciding that all wealth is rent seeking theft or hard won contribution is clearly an attempt to avoid a central issue.

I feel strongly that the “All Wealth is Theft” & the “All Tax is theft” crowds need to get a room.

3:57 PM · Oct 2, 2019

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

I’ve been trying to say since November 2016: “You have three years to cut out the stuff that loses elections: The evasion. The condescension. The globalization. The shaming. The power brokering. The donor class. The rent seeking. The woke signaling.” But that became what you are.

4:19 AM · Feb 28, 2020

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

And, DNC, at this rate you’ll likely lose to Donald Trump. Why? Because you are *systemically* corrupt against someone who is idiosyncratic in everything he does good, bad and indifferent. You are dead and he is alive. You have made this about the systemic rotting of US society.

4:19 AM · Feb 28, 2020

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

You actually deserve to lose this election. The voters of the party do not.

You had three years to figure out a non-Bernie option that worked for voters. And you couldn’t even do that.

We just need to mutiny against the party Mandarins; their commitment to sucking is absolute.

4:19 AM · Feb 28, 2020

Eric Weinstein

@ericweinstein

The question is: do you accept this wise system & it’s judgement of you or, dare I say it, do you question whether that system is so broken that it in fact has little ability to pass judgement due to myriad issues of political economy, capture, rent seeking and incentive failure?

5:40 AM · Mar 7, 2020

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Related Pages

• Extractive Elite
• Extractocrats
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking