Economic Rent Seeking trying to manipulate “the system” to get payment above and beyond what is required to produce a product or service. Rent Seeking looks different when done by business compared to governments oligarchies. A government oligarchy will staff a job that could be done by one person with extra staff. This allows the oligarchy to reward loyalists via unnecessary job creation. That requires payment above and beyond what is required to actually get the work done. Business seeking legal privileges to charge higher prices than they would otherwise would in a free market are likewise rent-seeking.
