Concept
Rentier capitalism describes the economic practice of gaining large profits without contributing to society. 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. Modern economists agree that the power dynamics of the rentier-tenant relationship are oppressive, but capitalist theories such as the natural "euthanasia of the rentier" famously put forth by John Maynard Keynes have been abandoned in light of the increase in rent-seeking behavior seen over the past century. Economist Guy Standing expects that a revolt against rentier capitalism has to come from the precariat, as the proletariat is too wedded to forms of social democracy to lead a revolt. Although the combination of words "rentier capitalism" were never used by Karl Marx himself, it is compatible with the Marxist idea of surplus value extraction. In his early works, Karl Marx juxtaposed the terms "rentier" and "capitalist" to argue that a rentier tends to exhaust his profits, whereas a capitalist must perforce re-invest most of the surplus value in order to survive competition. He wrote, "Therefore, the means of the extravagant rentier diminish daily in inverse proportion to the growing possibilities and temptations of pleasure. He must, therefore, either consume his capital himself, and in doing so bring about his own ruin, or become an industrial capitalist". In "Theories of Surplus Value" (written 1862–1863), Marx states "that interest (in contrast to industrial profit) and rent (that is the form of landed property created by capitalist production itself) are superfetations (i.e., excessive accumulations) which are not essential to capitalist production and of which it can rid itself.