@dacig Nah, I mean paying *politicians* to write laws or privatise public assets so that when people pay their (unavoidable) cost of living, the rich take a cut. They levy a 'rent tax', as the economists call it - skim a percentage off the top of other economic activity. It does nothing productive, but does make some people very rich for no effort at all. If they can wrangle it, they can get the politicians to exempt that kind of income from having to pay taxes, in one way or another, so they get to have their cake and eat ours too!

I interpreted the comic to be referring to the increasing prevalence of rent taxes, rather than the cost of living per se.

Your point about life having unavoidable costs is certainly valid, though.