What is Government?

1. What is Government? Lesson 6: What is the Best Economy?

2. What are the factors of production? How can we describe the free enterprise system and the laissez-faire theory? What is the role of government in a mixed economy? How are business organizations classified? What role do profit and loss have in a free enterprise system? Economies

3. Capitalism Socialism Communism Fascism Traditional Comparative Economic Systems Command!

4. The factors of production are the basic resources which are used to make all goods and services. Land • One factor of production is land, which in economic terms includes all natural resources. Labor • Labor is the work done by men and women to produce goods and services. Capital • Capitalincludes all the human-made resources that are used to produce goods and services. Someone who owns capital and puts it to productive use is called a capitalist. Entrepreneur • An entrepreneur—literally, an “enterpriser”—is an individual with the drive and ambition to combine land, labor, and capital resources to produce goods or offer services. Factors of Production

5. Free Enterprise System The free enterprise system is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods and investments that are determined by private decision rather than by state control.

6. Laissez-fairetheory holds that government should play a very limited, hands-off role in society. The proper role of government in economic affairs should be restricted to functions intended to promote and protect the free play of competition and the operation of the laws of supply and demand. Laissez-Faire Theory

7. Economists usually describe an economy in which private enterprise and governmental participation coexist as a mixed economy. The American economy is a mixed economy. Government at all levels in American society has some influence on the economy. No such thing! Mixed Economies

8. Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. Oscar Ameringer

9. Profit is the amount of money you earn from the business once costs incurred running the business have been subtracted. If earnings are less than the costs, the business has not made a profit; instead, it has taken a loss. Taking risks and making investments are an essential part of the capitalist system. Profit and Loss

10. Socialism is an economic and political philosophy based on the idea that the benefits of economic activity—wealth— should be equitably distributed throughout a society. Socialists a more equitable distribution of both income and opportunity, thus reducing great differences between rich and poor. The means of production are either controlled or “owned” by the state. What is Socialism?

11. Nationalization • Placing enterprises under government control, often by taking over privately owned industries, is called nationalization. Public Welfare • Socialists aim to guarantee the public welfare by providing for the equal distribution of necessities and services. Characteristics of Socialist Economies

12. Taxation • Because social welfare services are quite expensive, taxes in socialist countries tend to be high. Centrally Planned Economy • In a centrally planned economy, government officials plan how an economy will develop over a period of years. A democratic socialist economy may or may not have strict central planning. Characteristics of Socialist Economies

13. Fundamental purpose of government to protect property

14. Why do we have law? • To prevent crime • To punish criminals • To keep rule and order What is the purpose of Law?

15. Something done against another person that limits rights • Murder, theft, etc. • Doing something against someone’s will How do you define crime?

16. What do we call it when someone is shot and killed? • Murder • Why is this crime? • It confiscates Life • But can’t someone want their life taken away? • It confiscates life against their will. What are examples of doing something against someone’s will?

17. Slavery/kidnapping? • Is slavery a crime? • Why? • It is theft! • What does it take from the slave? • Freedom • What is another name for freedom? • Liberty What do we call it when someone is forced into activity that they do not wish to do?

18. Theft • Why is it illegal to steal property? • Because you had to work for it • Because it’s yours • Because you paid for it You all mentioned it:  what do we call it when property is stolen?

19. Pay for it What do you have to do to obtainproperty legally?

20. Where did you get the money to pay for it? • Job, investment

21. Why did I pay for this property, couldn’t I have held on to my dollars and bought something else? • I would be better off buying the item with my dollars.

22. What do we call it when two countries pay for the goods of another country? • TRADE

23. So, What did I have to do with my dollars to obtain my property? • Trade

24. Work, jobs, investments What do my dollars represent?

25. What determines how much money someone makes?

26. 24 How many hours are in the day?

27. And how many hours can you work per day?

28. TIME So I will ask again, what determines how much someone can make in a day?

29. TIME So what can we say you had to exchange to earn money to trade for property?

30. How much time does a dead person have to earn money/property? • How much time does a slave have to earn money or property? • So, what can we say are two requirements to be able to obtain property? • Are those the only requirements? So I had to sacrifice time to get my property

31. Protect life • Liberty • Property So, who can summarize what the purpose of law should be?

32. So, how does a citizen stay within the law/under this structure, what are the three requirements I must meet to not be in violation of the law? • By not infringing on someone else’s life, liberty, or property.

33. How does the law prevent this from happening?

34. Should the law be to promote Justice or prevent injustice?

35. What exists by itself? Justice or injustice? • Injustice

36. People are imperfect.  So how can we rephrase this statement: The purpose of law is to protect life, liberty, property? • The purpose of law is to prevent injustice, injustice defined as the encroachment of life, liberty, and property.

37. What is the relationship that binds life, liberty, and property to your person? • There will probably be silence… • Who drives a car in here? • When you are pulled over by the state, what do they ask to see? • Registration • What does registration prove? • Ownership • Who owns your life? • Who defends your liberty? • Who owns your property?

38. And what is the purpose of law, if you accept that these three rights are God-given, natural law, rights.... Finally.......

39. Markets “encourage every man to apply himself to particular occupation, and to cultivate and bring to perfection whatever talent or genius he may possess.” “[T]he most dissimilar geniuses are of use to one another; the different produces of their respective talents […] being brought, as it were, into a common stock, where every man may purchase whatever part of the produce of other man’s talents he has occasion for.” Thus: markets  opportunities  choices  diversity Why Free Markets?

40. Top Ten Nations of 2013 in Freedom

41. Why is Capitalism Worth Defending?

42. I believe that the very act of believing in something causes us to distance ourselves from that thing, thus a duality is created: oneself and the thing in which one believes. Now since we all know that in order to fully understand a thing one must be that thing -- walk a mile in its shoes so to speak -- it seems obvious that the state of believing in something inevitably causes us to not truly understand that thing in which we believe. This noncomprehension leads to all sorts of difficulties. "I believe in love" has a better than even chance of leading to divorce, while "I believe in God" seems to end in variations on the Spanish Inquisition. But -- and it's a big but -- if one were love, one couldn't help but be affectionate and caring towards oneself and others. If one were God, one would act toward all beings and all things as if they were one's own creations. And that, my friends, is the secret of life in a two-second vanity card. Of course, the secret could also be "Sit, Ubu, sit." We have to keep an open mind.