[sammydavis]

Rent is said to be divorced from work for the wealthy people who did nothing and inherited their large dowry, buildings and land owned. The wealthy inherited person receives income without doing any "work". Sure, it's difficult getting up, taking showers and eating breakfast, figuring out what charitable function to go to that weekend, but some people don't call such folks with inherited wealth "working". Yes, having a place to rent and live in NYC is certainly useful for society. But the people with inherited wealth who own such buildings and receive income for doing nothing more than paying some firm to take care of their building aren't really achieving much. You could make a similar argument about say my investments in mutual funds in my 401k. I will (hopefully) make money off those investments. If I became very wealthy and say my grandchildren inherited them, I'd be happy my children had assets to help take care of them, but my offspring would be part of the rentier class.

Why is it a trope that some wealthy people don't do any work? It's no doubt true. Look at some of Trump's kids. Of course some wealthy people do lots of work.

Interesting to hear about 'the Vendee'. It's certainly true that the vast majority of nobles were not like that.