Final answer:
The government is expected to keep its involvement in business activity to a minimum within a free enterprise system. It regulates to ensure fair competition, provides essential services, protects consumers, and promotes national economic goals, all while fostering a mixed economy.
Step-by-step explanation:
Within a free enterprise system, the government is expected to keep its involvement in business activity to a minimum. This minimally invasive approach is central to the concept of free enterprise, which emphasizes the ability of individuals and businesses to operate with a high degree of freedom from government intervention. In the United States, the government fulfills several roles such as regulator, protector, provider, consumer, and promoter, all while striving to maintain a balance that allows the free market to function effectively without disproportionately favoring any particular segment of society.
The U.S. government serves as a regulator by ensuring competition in the market and as a protector by enforcing laws to prevent the exploitation of consumers. As a provider, it offers essential services like national defense, public education, and welfare. The government also purchases goods from the private sector, fulfilling its role as a consumer. By promoting national economic goals, it seeks to sustain the vitality of the free enterprise system. Despite these roles, the overarching expectation is to promote a business environment conducive to economic growth, competition, and innovation with limited government interference, thereby emphasizing the importance of a mixed economy where both public and private sectors have a role to play.