<i>The rent, then, is the value the possessor can extract from the property as a result of not having to take those costs.</i><p>But the nature of uncertainty of action means that such a cost isn&#x27;t really quantifiable. It seems like you&#x27;re trying to say that the rent is the value derived during idling. But idling can serve a valid social purpose in conferring availability of something, or when land is converted for a purpose only on occasion but must necessarily remain available by idling.