Enterprise (Business)

Enterprise (from French entreprendre to undertake) is a business organization. It is a synonym for a business, firm or company. It also means the willingness to undertake new ventures. In economics, free enterprise is synonym of free market or free trade; it is business governed by the laws of supply and demand, not restrained by government interference, regulation or subsidy. [1]

Free enterprise is the freedom of individuals and businesses to operate and compete with a minimum of government interference or regulation. It enables individuals and businesses to create, produce, transform, develop, innovate and compete in the marketplace. As they are able and willing, enterprising people produce goods and services for profit, offer their labor for wages and own the resources needed to produce and sell goods and services. In this system, no one forces people to be creative, productive or enterprising. Instead, they pursue what they believe to be best for them. By producing the goods and services that society values most highly, a free enterprise system results in the greatest efficiency, or lowest costs, of any economic system. It is the system most compatible with individual freedom and political democracy. Free Enterprise, the Economy and Monetary Policy

It is said that Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) built an intellectual defense of capitalism and thus of civilization. When he appeared, there was virtually no systematic intellectual opposition to socialism or defense of capitalism. Socialism, von Mises showed, in his greatest original contribution to economic thought, not only abolishes the incentive of profit and loss and the freedom of competition along with private ownership of the means of production, but makes economic calculation, economic coordination, and economic planning impossible, and therefore results in chaos. Ludwig von Mises:Defender of Capitalism

Enterprise has been the name of several ships. A History of Ships Named Enterprise; also the name of a fictional starship.

See also[edit]

Ludwig von Mises

• Welfare
• Capital
• Laissez faire
• Free Speech Clause
• Business plans

External links[edit]

• Capitalism The Columbia Encyclopedia.
• Free enterprise and its critics
• Chapters on Socialism by John Stuart Mill
• Economic Theory for the American Free Enterprise System
• Ludwig Von Mises - Libertarian
• Milton Friedman