Monopoly rent discounts the future in favor of the past

Evidence

An asset is a ‘‘resource’’ that creates ‘‘future benefits’’—it is both capital (i.e., productive) and property (i.e., tradable; Veblen 1908a). Consequently, intangible assets like IPRs are both a resource in commodity production and an income stream (e.g., licensing), representing knowledge monopolies that accrue monopoly rent (Zeller 2008). A monopoly means that businesses do not have to engage in competition in product or commodity markets. Moreover, as Fuller (2002, 36) notes, monopoly rent actually ‘‘‘discounts’ the future in favor of the past, in that payment is made for things already done.’’ Consequently, it is not simply the future that is generative of value in the present, it is the past as well (enforced through property rights on previously undertaken activities). — Kean Birch, Rethinking Value in the Bio-economy, 62

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The Fuller claim that monopoly rent “discounts the future in favor of the past” inverts the standard assetization narrative (which usually stresses expected future cash flows) — that value flows backward as well as forward is a genuinely paradigm-nuancing point.
• XREF: Connects to the Birthe & Muniesa assetization literature and to Kalecki/classical rent theory. — connects to: Customers exercise more protection-market choice where the monopoly is insecure; Monopoly power is not a market flaw but a market-driven outcome — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 281; Monopoly is the outcome, not the antithesis, of competition. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 138 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Nostalgia became a low-risk financial strategy that entrenched the past over new IP #exemplifies (0.80) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 388
• Customers exercise more protection-market choice where the monopoly is insecure #qualifies (0.75)
• Monopoly is the outcome, not the antithesis, of competition. #corroborates (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 138
• Monopoly power is not a market flaw but a market-driven outcome #complicates (0.72) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 281
• Only a bigger monopoly can destroy a smaller local monopoly #expands (0.72)
• Zero marginal costs force platforms to extract rent rather than earn profit #expands (0.70) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 999