Rent seeking is an economic concept that's been around since the 18th century. It explains why DC has been so resistant to replacing the income/payroll tax system with the FAIRtax. Today, rent seeking involves obtaining economic wealth or opportunity from government payments without exchanging anything of value. Much of modern day rent seeking is aimed at the federal income tax code. The DC denizens want to keep it that way, but we the people need to rise up and demand the FAIRtax.