>>25
Very interesting analogy. I see what you're saying, on one hand, but on the other: in a world where a novel can be put together by a skeleton team of (not uncoincidentally) three people: the writer, the editor, and the marketer, how many other members of the above "publishing value-add pipeline" can be classified as rent-seekers?
I feel software today is in such a bad state because of the rent-seeking barnacles that are always attracted when large sums of money are involved.