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Overview of the U.S. Economy > What is a Market Economy?
What is a Market Economy?
By Michael Watts
Introduction
Command and Market Economies
Consumers in a Market
Economy
Business in a Market Economy
Workers in a Market Economy
A System of Markets
Finances in a Market Economy
Government in a Market
Economy
A SYSTEM OF MARKETS
By following their own self-interest in open
and competitive markets, consumers, producers,
and workers are led to use their economic resources
in ways that have the greatest value to the
national economy -- at least in terms of satisfying
more of people's wants. The first person to
point out this fact in a systematic way was
the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, who published
his most famous book, An Inquiry Into the
Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,
in 1776. Smith was the first great classical
economist, and among the first to describe
how an economy based on a system of markets
could promote economic efficiency and individual
freedom, regardless of whether people were
particularly industrious or lazy.
The Invisible Hand
Smith argued that if people are naturally good
and kind, a market economy offers them a
great deal of economic freedom to carry out
their good deeds, backed up by an efficient
system of production, which generates more
material goods and services for them to use
in doing those good works. But what if people
are selfish, greedy, or lazy?
Anyone who wants to enjoy more of the material
goods and services produced in a market economy
faces strong economic incentives to work hard,
spend carefully, and save and invest. And most
successful businesses have to produce good
products, sell them at market prices, pay their
employees market wages, and treat their customers
courteously -- even if that isn't their natural
way of doing things.
The basic reason for that kind of change in
some people's behavior is competition. As Adam
Smith pointed out, when there are several butcher
shops in a community, any butcher who is rude
or tries to sell inferior meat at unreasonable
prices soon loses business and income to other
butcher shops. If your neighborhood butcher
is naturally friendly and benevolent, so much
the better.
But even customers who do not know a butcher
personally don't have to depend on such altruistic
characteristics to get good service and products.
The more a greedy, selfish, or lazy butcher
wants to enjoy a higher standard of living,
the more he or she will try to meet the competition
and build up a large base of satisfied customers.
Or as Smith described this feature of market
economies, people are led "as if by an
invisible hand" to work and behave in
ways that use resources efficiently, in terms
of producing things that other people want
and are wllling to pay for, even though that
may have been "no part of their original
intentions."
One other factor must be at work for Smith's
invisible hand to function properly: the butcher
must own or rent the shop, so that he or she
has the rights to its profits. Without this
right to private property, and to the profits
it brings, the invisible hand of competition
will not motivate businesses to offer the best
and most varied products at reasonable prices.
Butchers who are employees of the state will
view their jobs very differently than those
who are in business for themselves. This fact
holds true throughout the economy, whether
one considers a butcher, a carpenter, a restaurant
chain, or a multinational insurance company.
Of course, if there is no competition -- if
there is only one place to buy meat in some
market area -- things won't be as pleasant
for consumers. And that will be true even if
the butcher shop is owned and operated by the
government. Inevitably, removing competition
also removes many of the most powerful market
incentives to provide good service, high-quality
products, and low prices. That is why, except
for a few special cases that are discussed
later, most economists view competition between
producers as the consumers' best friend.
In even broader terms, by decentralizing the
control of economic resources -- letting individual
producers decide what and how to produce to
satisfy their customers -- competition and
self interest ensure that most resources available
in a market economy are used efficiently, which
is to say in their most valuable uses as directed
by what consumers demand and buy.
An Economic Chain
Such a system of economic individualism is
also built on the idea that individual producers
and consumers are in a better position to
know what they want, and what is happening
to market prices for the products they buy
and sell, than is a centralized planning
committee in the national capital.
For example, millions of people are fed in
New York City and other metropolitan areas
throughout the world every day without any
planning agency to establish quotas for the
amount of bread, meat, vegetables, and beverages
that will be shipped into the city every day,
month, and year. In fact, no one really knows
the total amounts of these products that are
used in this market, or even has to know. Instead,
restaurants and sandwich shops are run by private
owners who, as a group, offer a wide variety
of meals at competitive prices. Consumers patronize
the shops they like best and pay prices that
are high enough for efficient owners to earn
a profit and stay in business. Sellers who
offer unpopular items, charge prices that are
too high, or provide inferior service, will
simply not survive as business owners and managers.
The same kind of process goes on with the
bakeries competing to sell bread to these restaurants
and shops, and with the companies that compete
to sell ovens to the bakeries, and with the
companies that compete to sell steel and other
materials to the companies producing the ovens.
At each step along the way there are buyers
and sellers who know their own part in this
overall production process very well, but who
have little or no idea about the other links
in this economic chain of events.
In this way, with a decentralized system of
private markets, resources are efficiently
allocated to satisfy consumer demands. Because
the process is so decentralized, many producers
and consumers may not understand how it works
or even be aware that individual markets routinely
interact in such an efficient and systematic
way. But it is precisely this decentralization
that is responsible for much of the efficiency
in the first place.