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What is laissez-faire capitalism?

Laissez-faire capitalism is an economic system. Capitalism involves the ownership of property by individuals. The individual's goal is to use this property, or capital (buildings, machines, and other equipment used to produce goods and services), to create income. Individuals and companies compete with one another to earn money. This competition between companies determines the amount of goods produced and the prices company owners may demand for these goods. The French term laissez-faire literally means "to let people do as they wish." Thus, supporters of laissez-faire capitalism do not want the government to interfere in business matters, or if governments do involve themselves in business matters, to keep government influence to a minimum. Although the economies of the United States and many other industrialized nations are highly capitalistic, there is no pure capitalist system...

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1. Systems And Terms
   1. What is laissez-faire capitalism?
   2. What is mercantilism?
   3. Why do economists still regard Adam Smith so highly?
   4. What is Keynesian economics?
   5. What were indentured servants?
   6. What was triangular trade?
   7. How were finished goods made before the Industrial Revolution?
   8. When was the New York Stock Exchange founded?
   9. What is the system of scientific management?
   10. Who invented the assembly line?
   11. What is a robber baron?
   12. What is a Horatio Alger story?
   13. What was Black Tuesday?
   14. What was the New Deal?
   15. Why was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act important?
   16. What is e-commerce?
2. Money
   1. What was a piece of eight?
   2. What was rag money?
   3. What were wildcat banks?
   4. What were greenbacks?
   5. What were Continentals?
   6. When was the U.S. income tax system established?
   7. When was the Interstate Commerce Commission established?
3. Industries
   1. What was the National Bank Act?
   2. What is the Federal Reserve?
   3. How did the American tobacco industry begin?
   4. What were the Navigation Acts?
   5. What was the Cumberland Road?
   6. What was the Pony Express?
   7. How did the invention of barbed wire change the West?
   8. When was the biggest gold rush in U.S. history?
   9. What was the Comstock Lode?
   10. What is black gold?
   11. When did diamond mining begin in Africa?
   12. How did the American textile industry begin?
   13. How did Eli Whitney happen to invent the cotton gin?
   14. What was "king cotton"?
   15. How did the invention of the reaper change America?
   16. What were bonanza farms?
   17. How did the American cattle industry get started?
   18. What is Bessemer process?
   19. When did chain stores begin?
   20. When did department stores begin?
   21. How has the mail-order business changed since the nineteenth century?
   22. Who was Rosie the Riveter?
   23. Why was Ford's Model T so important to American history?
   24. How did plastic revolutionize modern life?
   25. How long ago was computer giant Microsoft founded?

1. Industrial Revolution