The rent system is feudalism. Land lords are the whip crackers of the modern day slavery. Most people in this system are consumerist slaves, even most shop owners. Real capitalism is higher up in the strata but it's fist level is land lord, where in someone capitalizes on your existence. They don't really provide anything but it seems like they do because we are programmed to consider it a given that we should have to pay someone else to exist but really having to pay some one rent to live somewhere is a violation of your most fundamental but completely over looked human right.

That's the first level of true capitalism, to capitalize on the existence of others and it cracks the whip to ensure that the rat race goes on and goes strong. Without the whip crackers the rat race would completely topple and farming villages, the default state of human existence (includes native american style which were usually farming villages) would arise where people lived organic life styles and worked to meet their needs directly.