Government Economic InterventionIntroductionThe United States began its existence as a country newly freed from British colonial customs and quickly adopted capitalism and its free market ideology, Laissez Faire. As the economy grew, so did the government and its desire to influence or control the economy, as a means of maintaining balance and fairness in the marketplace. More than two centuries later, the people of the United States began to doubt their government's growing desire to intervene in the economy, which gradually transformed the United States into a mixed market economy from the pure free market capitalists we once were . Economic interventionists and Laissez Faire advocates have excellent arguments for why their view is the best view, but the truth is that, throughout the history of the United States, we have seen increases and decreases in levels of government intervention. , as well as the failures of our previously established free market economy that can easily support the need for economic intervention. For the U.S. economy, a mixed economy, to continue to function and grow, the federal government must intervene and impose economic regulation to counteract the failures encountered in the markets for public goods and merit goods, and the excess power of market in some sectors, better known as monopolies. Public Goods Public goods are an area of ​​our market that can fail when market demand is inconsistent with actual demand from the public, resulting in a shortage in the quantity of public goods available for consumption. Investopedia.com defines a public good as: “A product that an individual can consume without reducing its availability to another individual and from… middle of paper… Web. November 15, 2013. .3) “Economics of Market Failure ”. Tutor2u. Tutor2U Limited and Web. 15 November 2013. .4) Pettinger, Tejvan R. “Goods of Merit and Demerit.” Economy Help. Economics Help, n.d. Web. November 15, 2013. http://www.economicshelp.org/micro-economic-essays/marketfailure/merit-demerit-goods/5) Schiller, Bradley R. “Government Intervention.” Essentials of economics. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2011. Page No. Print.6) "Terms that begin with 'A'" Investopedia. Investopedia US, a division of Valueclick, Inc, 2013. Web. Nov. 15. 2013. .7) “United States GDP”. TRADE ECONOMY. Commercial Economics, 2013. Web. 15 November. 2013. .