Dead End Quotes
In this context, “rent" means payment is required for the use or right to use anything such as using land for a pipeline, for mining, prospecting for oil, the rights to fish for caviar sturgeon, erecting a building, obtaining an official document, etc. The Russian economic system and culture has created a striving for getting paid to grant rights as opposed to getting paid for making something, creating something, or performing a service for someone. In the breakup of the Soviet Union, some individuals obtained (by various means) the right to charge rent to others for much of the great trove of Russian land, waters and other natural resources. They became billionaires – oligarchs – and many are still paying off government officials to control those rights.
The description of Buddhists, Christians, and Communists as “fanatics” is one of the many degradations of others by the Scientology founder.
