Free enterprise is the freedom of individuals and businesses to operate and compete with a minimum of government interference or regulation. In order to encourage competition and prevent monopolies, governments take steps to regulate economies.

Section 2: Measuring the Economy

An economic system is the way a society organizes the production and consumption of goods and services. Our government plays a limited, but important, role in measuring and trying to balance the alternating periods of growth and decline called the business cycle.

Section 3: Government, the Economy, and You

People form governments to establish order, provide security, and accomplish common goals. A major focus of government programs is to help people in poverty.