Economic systems

Different Types of Economic Systems:

The main question for all economies is how to distribute the limited resources to society.

The general economic systems are:

Market economy- an economy based on the ideas of capitalism. Private ownership of resources and demand is supported by the concept of consumers being willing and able to consume.

Mixed economy-an economy with a mixture of both publicly and privately held resources. Many services tend to be provided by the government. Consumers of some services (i.e. healthcare) occur through "need" based on income in many cases.

Planned economy- an economy that is typically referred to as socialist or communist. Many services and some goods are provided by the government. Many planned economies are also socially restrictive in terms of voting, free speech, and other westernized concepts.

Traditional economy-an economy that has the system and resources closely tied to traditions that may be based on religion or custom. These systems vary greatly but tend to be associated with the developing world.

Barter economy-an economy that tends to use goods to exchange and relies on "coincidence of wants" for exchange instead of currency.