The term "free enterprise" is often used to describe America's market system. Unfortunately, when the government sets rules and standards for the companies in the system, the result is not free enterprise. Wilson S. Johnson, President of the National Federation of Independent Business, defines free enterprise as "the successful marriage of personal freedom with economic freedom". With free enterprise comes competitive pricing, more wealth which is distributed widely among the population, and small business survival--an important trait when over 50% of America's non-government workforce is employed by small businesses. Deregulation brings free enterprise in a sense truer than it has existed in the past. The government should not regulate businesses.
Deregulation in the eighties has brought new meanings to industries such as airlines, railroads, and telecommunications. Although adjustment proved traumatic, the airline industry grew from 36 to 156 individual airlines. The result has been competitive prices, a huge web of new routes, and competitive employee wages.
United States
United States
United StatesIn 1980, Congress got rid of rules that encouraged railroads to keep unwanted routes, that forced prices too high to compete with truck and barge rates, or kept prices too low to make a profit. Now railway companies are making deals with shippers at competitive rates allowing, once again, the railroads to be an important part of America. Since the breakup of AT&T in January 1984, almost every element of telephoning has been open to competition. Numerous firms have been formed boasting low long-distance rates, car phone models, fiber-optic cable, and such. The complexity of customer's bills and other confusing aspects of having so many different companies are predicted to work themselves out with time. It is obvious that deregulation has allowed competition to evolve and thrive in industries where it had never been allowed.
It is obvious that the...