ABSTRACT
One of the factors that works against economic progress is the potential for the appropriation of the gains from entrepreneurship through government. Government exercises a monopoly over the legitimate use of force over people in a society. This force can be used to maintain peaceful and productive interaction among those in an economy, but it can also be used to transfer resources from some people to others. There is always some public interest justification for such transfers, whether it is helping those on the bottom of the economic ladder to get the resources they need to increase their well-being and productivity, or to boost the productivity of those who are already productive by making them more competitive. But because government has the power to transfer resources from some to others, entrepreneurial individuals will see that they have the opportunity to use the force of government to have resources transferred toward them. Anne Krueger called the seeking of transfers, through taxation or through regulation, from some people toward themselves “rent seeking”, and the name has stuck. 1
