Rent seeking club Australia

What I always thought. Some economics researchers have analysed Australia’s wealthiest people and shown that there’s not an innovator or entrepreneur amongst them.

In fact, they’re all experts at the dark arts of rent seeking. That is, influencing their unfair advantage, their monopolies or whatever, through the control of politicians that have the power to grant monopoly rights.

This is done the old fashion corrupt way, brown paper bags, or through influence of voting intentions through media, or by directly corruption of the very weak minds of the politicians with cleverly forged fabrications.

Because of their psychology all the rent seeker’s wealth, once earned, is either spent on maintaining their source of income through more rent seeking, or stashed somewhere safe like in real estate. None of it ends up as risk capital. Thus our excess wealth gets trapped doing nothing.

Mind you this isn’t just the wealthy. It also applies to the paid up members of corporate Australia. They behave the same as the wealthy through the companies that they work for, and their zeal is focused on climbing the greasy pole within, at the top of which lies the honey pot they are all helping to create.

Is there any way to stop this culturally ingrained rent seeking? I can’t see it, if there is.  There’s too many people in on the game. Deep down they know where their bread is buttered. They will resist any changes very effectively through the very same dark arts that they have perfected.

Innovation and entrepreneurship is a casual victim of this situation. There’s no exporters of tech because our big companies are busy rent seeking instead. Without exporters, there’s no M&A exit market for tech companies, without which a tech sector cannot flourish.

One possible solution is to not tax foreign earnings of our companies. That’d be interesting; they’d be compelled to generate profits in markets where they have no influence over politicians. It might force them to be innovative and take risks.

It might backfire though; we might end up exporting our first class rent seeking ways to the rest of the world. Then we’ll all be fucked.