The idea and name was first coined by Karl Farmer, Economics professor at the University of Graz. He was studying the economic effect of various laws concerning landlords and rent control. He began to theorize that laws that increasingly allowed the land lord to do things like charge higher deposits, pass on repair costs to renters, etc. lowered the risk the landlord was taking untill he served little economic function (in other words the prospect of renting out a house to tenants becomes more and more "infallible" at making money). Farmer argued that the main economic benefits of a landlord was to allow housing liquity, lower housing prices, and to spread out repair costs. The less landlords performed these functions, the more they were simply a kind of tax or "money skimming" off the net economic system. The more legislation allowed the economic utility of the landlord to decline, Graz argued that at some point it would be better for the goverment itself to become a landlord, all other things being equal. Then any income would be a real tax whos benifits theoretically would be shared by the community as a whole. Barring this, laws in a capitalist system must allow for the vital process of creative destruction.