free enterprise

n.
The freedom of private businesses to operate competitively for profit with minimal government regulation.

free-enterprise free'-en'ter·prise'

An economic system where few restrictions are placed on business activities and ownership. In this system, governments generally have minimal ownership of enterprises in the market place. This system aims for limited restrictions on trade and minimal government intervention.

Investopedia Says:
The free enterprise movement started in the 1700s, when many individuals were restricted from starting and owning their own business without the permission of the government. The movement looked to reduce ownership and other related restrictions, such as how one should operate their business and who they were allowed to trade with.

Over time, the focus of this movement has shifted. A lot of its causes have been incorprated in most free-market systems. In the U.S. free enterprise advocates continue to fight for fewer restrictions along with fighting against any new developments that would restrict free enterprise.

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Conduct of business without direct government interference; conducting business primarily according to the laws of supply and demand; risking capital for the purpose of making a profit.

Also, private enterprise. An undertaking on one's own behalf, especially a shady or illegal one. For example, The city treasurer didn't bother with competitive bids; the spirit of free enterprise just led him to his brother-in-law, or The sergeant indulged in a little private enterprise, selling cigarettes on the black market. This sarcastic application of a term that has meant, since about 1885, the freedom of private businesses to operate competitively for profit with a minimum of government control, dates from the mid-1900s.

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The freedom of private businesses to operate competitively for profit with minimal governmental regulation.

Quotes:

"Entrepreneurial profit is the expression of the value of what the entrepreneur contributes to production." - Joseph A. Schumpeter

"Freedom of enterprise was from the beginning not altogether a blessing. As the liberty to work or to starve, it spelled toil, insecurity, and fear for the vast majority of the population. If the individual were no longer compelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic subject, the disappearance of this freedom would be one of the greatest achievements of civilization." - Herbert Marcuse

"Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes be seasonably interposed." - Thomas Jefferson

"In the long run, free trade benefits everyone; in the short run it is bound to produce much pain." - Henry Hobhouse

"The market came with the dawn of civilization and it is not an invention of capitalism. If it leads to improving the well-being of the people there is no contradiction with socialism." - Mikhail Gorbachev

"We Asians are the original Conservatives because for thousands of years we have believed in free enterprise you have just stolen our philosophy." - Jayvantsinnji Gohel

See more famous quotes about Free Enterprise