Napolitano Eamon Barkhordarian

Period A 2/2/10
US gov

Section 1.4
Economics- Study of human efforts to satisfy seemingly unlimited wants through use of limited
sources

1. Role of Economic Systems

a. Know how much should be produced
b. How goods and services should be produced
c. Who gets goods and services that are produced
2. Capitalism
a. Capitalism
i. Society best served by any productive economic activity that free
individuals choose.
b. 5 Characteristics
i. Private ownership and control of property and economic resources
ii. Free enterprise
iii. Competition among business
iv. Freedom of choice
v. Possibility of profits
c. Origins of Capitalism
i. Free market-buyers and sellers were free to make unlimited economic
decisions in marketplace
ii. Adam Smith- wealth of nations- A piece of work by Adam Smith, which
argued that the free market should be allowed to regulate business activity.
i. Laissez-faire- The policy allowing business to operate with little or no
government interference.
d. Mixed Market Economy-free enterprise supported by government decisions
3. Socialism
a. Socialism-government own and makes every decision
i. Distribute wealth
ii. Society’s control
iii. Public ownership of most land
4. Communism
b. Karl Marx- A German Philosopher. He condemned the ideas of Utopians as
unrealistic idealism. He agitated for reform. He was forced to leave his
homeland because of his radical ideas. Marxism was the economic and
political theories of Karl Marx that hold that human actions and institutions
are economically determined and that class struggle is needed to create
historical change and that capitalism will ultimately be superseded by
communism.
a. Bourgeoisie- capitalists
Napolitano Eamon Barkhordarian
Period A 2/2/10
US gov
b. Proletariat-workers
c. Communism- property held in common, 1 class evolve, no need for government
d. Command economy-government decides how much to produce how to distribute
goods