1. The American economic system is, organized around a basically private-enterprise, market- oriented economy in which consumers largely determine what shall be produced by spending their money in the marketplace for those goods and services that they want most.
[参考译文] 美国的经济是以基本的私有企业和市场导向经济为架构的，在这种经济中，消费者很大程度上通过在市场上为那些他们最想要的货品和服务付费来决定什么应该被制造出来。

2. Thus, in the American economic system it is the demand of individual consumers, coupled with the desire of businessmen to maximize profits and the desire of individuals to maximize their incomes, that together determine what shall be produced and how resources are used to produce it.
[参考译文] 因此，在美国的经济体系中，个体消费者的需求与商人试图最大化其利润的欲望和个人想最大化其收入效用的欲望相结合，一起决定了什么应该被制造，以及资源如何被用来制造它们。

3. If, on the other hand, producing more of a commodity results in reducing its cost, this will tend to increase the supply offered by seller-producers, which in turn will lower the price and permit