Ethics of the Free Enterprise System

• What qualities should an ethical economic system have?

First Characteristic

• People are free to choose the type of work they want to do.

2nd

• Wide variety of goods is available to both the majority and minority populations of society

3rd

• An ethical system rewards (or punishes) producers according to how well or poorly they respond to the preferences of the buying public.

4th

• People must have freedom buy and sell goods, acquire property, work where they want to work, or start their own businesses

• They also have the freedom to fail

Free Enterprise

• Free enterprise does not offer guaranteed outcomes

• It offers freedom

Declaration of Independence

• What was the point?

Declaration of Independence

• The King had prevented “the 13 colonies from trading with all parts of the world”

Constitution

• Article 1, Section 8 – “No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State”

• What would happen if states had been allowed the right to impose a tax on each other’s goods?

Group Work

• How might American history and present day life be different if the different states had been given the right to tax each other’s goods?

• Each group/pair must present 5 different ideas