Politics and Economics: Two Looking Glasses - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 45

Most everywhere in the world, governments play a role in the way crops are grown and
how goods are made and distributed. Governments play a role in deciding who is employed
and under what conditions. Through public money spent on education, governments affect
the skills the worker brings to his or her employment—whether neurosurgery or gardening.
Governments affect the prices charged for goods and the cost of borrowing money to start
a business or buy a house. Even those who demand that government stay out of economic
affairs agree that government must make laws to protect private property, enforce private
contracts, and provide a judicial system that enforces those laws.
Figure 4.1. From a 1911 Industrial Worker Publication