In What Ways Can Mechanical Thinking Contribute To The Process Of Rent Seeking?
Readings:
Joseph Stiglitz, “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society”
(New Humanities Reader)
Franklin Foer, “Mark Zuckerberg’s War on Free Will” (linked on Sakai as
an excerpt from
World Without Mind)
Prompt:
Franklin Foer discusses how Facebook, through its use of algorithms that manipulate its
users in various ways, “outsources” independent thought and encourages what Foer
calls “mechanical thinking”. Joseph Stiglitz outlines how a small societal elite can
manipulate the economy to unfairly reward itself while depriving lower-class workers of
fair compensation for their efforts. He calls this activity “rent seeking”, and though he applies it primarily to the financial sector, its definition can be more broadly applied to any industry or elite that is financially rewarded in a way that is greater than their actual creation of wealth. In a well-developed essay that makes use of the texts above, please answer the following question: In what ways can mechanical thinking contribute to the process of rent seeking?
5 full pages must use quotes and use proper citations
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