Modern U.S. economy

The U.S. is considered a mixed economy. Some examples of this include:

• A central United States bank.
• Many cities provide public transit as competition against private options, an indirect form of price control.
• The United States Postal Service is a public mail service that exists alongside private options such as FedEx or UPS.
• Most road networks are government built and maintained, although private citizens and companies are allowed to "sponsor" a highway or road to ease some of the financial strain.
• Public and private schools are available for children.
• Waste collection and treatment are usually provided as a service by the local government, though most local governments pay private companies to perform the service.
• State and local governments provide guaranteed police and firefighting support, though private security forces are available.
• Intercity passenger rail (Amtrak) is a nationalized industry, as are many local trains.
• American airports are government operated but all American airlines are private.
• The FDA must test and approve a drug or chemical before it is allowed to be sold on the market.
• State and Federal governments have minimum wage laws, though several occupations are exempt from the rules, such as wait-staff, who make up most of their income from tips.
• The government provides a social safety net through methods such as Social Security and unemployment benefits.
• All Americans over the age of 65 are eligible for Medicare, a public health insurance option.
• Most agriculture has been subsidized.
• The Federal government has the power to loan money to failing businesses, in the form of bailouts, as a means of keeping markets afloat and preventing sudden unemployment. These bailouts usually come with significant constraints to prevent the businesses from spending the money frivolously. Some of the strongest criticisms of the recent TARP bailouts were that they had relatively few regulations on how the money could be spent, leading to several whistleblower reports of exorbitant CEO bonuses.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 812