that's part of it; marc andreessen's nimby posture in the atherton zoning discussion, for example, was pure rent-seeking: https://archive.fo/MjHa8
(i know that's from the 'david miscavige leads scientology to milestone year' atlantic, but i think in this case their reporting is authentic)
but i don't think that's all, or even a majority, of it. rent-seeking is at least beneficial to the rent-seeker, if successful. but most of the problem is people fighting with each other in ways that aren't profitable even to themselves. a lot of that takes the form of arguing about how to assign blame for problems instead of solving them ;)
(i know that's from the 'david miscavige leads scientology to milestone year' atlantic, but i think in this case their reporting is authentic)
but i don't think that's all, or even a majority, of it. rent-seeking is at least beneficial to the rent-seeker, if successful. but most of the problem is people fighting with each other in ways that aren't profitable even to themselves. a lot of that takes the form of arguing about how to assign blame for problems instead of solving them ;)