It completely depends on what your renting. Rent to own is a stupid idea but renting a jackhammer to break up some concrete patio in your back yard makes a lot more sense than buying a new jackhammer. Renting a home when you’re on a 12-24 month contract where you’re pretty sure your next work assignment won’t be in that same city makes sense. Renting when the cost of ownership is higher than the cost of renting makes sense.

How many people that get suckered into to owning their vacation (i.e. timeshare) wish they would have just rented their vacations. I.e. pay for them when you take them.

Now certainly people renting items out make money but it isn’t necessarily the person renting that’s taking the hit, it could very well be the manufacturer of the product being rented. If everybody went out and bought a new jackhammer every time they needed one the manufacturers of jackhammers would be doing great. Instead the people renting jackhammers do pretty well and the people that occasionally need a jackhammer save money by not having to buy a new jackhammer.