system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
eli5: What is rent seeking and most specifically defensive rent seeking?
gpt
Rent seeking is behavior that increases someone's income without increasing wealth.  In economics, most transactions are done because both people are better off, when a baker sells a loaf of bread it's because the baker values the money more than the bread, while the buyer values the bread higher than the money.  

An economic rent is something that doesn't do that.  A simple example is a license to be a baker.  If the government only wants 20 bakeries in the town, and makes that many licenses there will be 20 bakers who get the licenses and who make more money than bakers in the next town over, but whose bread doesn't make their buyers any better off.