Capitalism and Rent: A destructive relationship

Rent blocks the transition to capitalism. Rent is intrinsically tied to inequality. Profit requires rising mass incomes. International specialisation on raw materials has traditionally contributed to the increase of rent. Devaluation and export-oriented manufacturing favour the transformation of rent into capitalist growth. The Maghreb countries are not well placed for such export-oriented manufacturing. Their production of basic necessities is not sufficient for devaluation below purchasing power parity. These countries risk succumbing to the impending globalisation of rent.

Rent has become an object of scientific enquiry in recent years, largely because mainstream economics cannot explain the distortions produced by massively available financial resources. These distortions occur despite the context of development oriented discourses and the visible economic and social needs of the large majority of the population which trigger fears of the ruling and surplus appropriating classes about impending threats to regime stability. As mainstream economics have difficulties explaining the lack or distortion of dynamising effects of rents, it is useful to place the analysis outside mainstream economics. The approach I follow can be characterised as left-wing real economy-oriented Keynesianism.