I was driving with my five-year-old son in the back seat the other day. He saw a sign that said “For Lease,” and proudly proclaimed to me that he knows what that means. So, of course I ask him to explain it to me to test him. He told me that leasing something means borrowing it. I said, “That's right, and you pay to lease it every month.” He was shocked and didn't understand why you would pay for something you don't own.
It got me thinking more about rent, renting, and how non-value-adding behavior that seeks to extract wealth from a system is called “rent seeking behavior” in economics. Not something I had really put together until talking with a child.