The free enterprise system

The United States economy is based on the free enterprise system: Private businesses compete against one another with relatively little interference from the government. Since the depression of the 1930s, when the economy essentially collapsed, laws have been made giving the government a more active role in economic and other matters.

Changes over time

Until the second half of the last century, the United States was a mainly agricultural nation. The Civil War (1861 – 1865) helped stimulate industry. In the years that followed, industrialization transformed the country, although many areas, especially the South, remained mainly agricultural and rural.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. economy grew rapidly. Many companies moved to the South and Southwest, and these areas experienced change and growth. Then, in the mid-1970s, economic growth began to slow down.

Just as there had been a shift from agriculture to industry, there is now a shift from industry to services. Services are provided by hospitals, banks, law firms, hotels and restaurants, and so on. In recent years, most new jobs have been service jobs.

Randee Falk: Spotlight on the USA, Oxford University Press, 1993, page 6 f.