A number of different economic systems have been developed and are in use in various societies today. People like to think that each country has only one economic system. In fact, most countries have a mixture of several different economic systems working together. Some things are done better with each type of economic system.

The massive centralized planning and economic dictatorship of communist countries did not work and has been abandoned in most countries where it had been tried.

Socialist economic systems have a central government role for some important functions and often a free market system for other economic activities. In most countries the protective functions of armies, police, courts and regulators are run by the government. The governments may also run highways, streets, utilities and many educational institutions and social welfare agencies. These may be supplemented by market economy additions such as private security firms and private educational institutions.

Market economies function well for companies making or selling consumer goods and services. Some of these companies are state sanctioned monopolies like the power companies. Some are oligopolies where only a few major companies control the entire market. The remaining goods and services are served by competitive market companies. The primary reason for their strength is that they are very competitive and so are tuned to what consumers need and want. Their competitive nature also tends to make them very efficient.

Abundance economy goods and services have traditionally been limited to free broadcast radio and television, some advertising newspapers and magazines and small novelty items to attract customers or which contain advertising. Many religious and non-profit groups also provided free goods and services but mostly only to people in need. With the advent of computers and the web, an explosion of abundance economy goods and services have been made available for everyone and more are being added daily.

Most economic systems are not "free" systems which means they are not free of massive government intervention in the system. In a communist dictatorship there is heavy government involvement in planning and resource allocation. In socialist economic systems the government runs some industries. In free market systems, there is government involvement by taxes, grants, regulations, protective tariffs and government subsidies. In abundance economics there may also be government subsidies, taxes, regulations, licensing, intellectual property laws and other government involvement.

Some economic systems work well in one type of economic climate but are failures in other economic climates. For example, a free market economy only works where most people have or earn some money to keep the economy going. They are not appropriate and generally failures for situations like a severe depression and in restarting a failed economy like many third world nations possess. In these situations abundance economic systems would work better in getting the economy functioning.

There will always be these different types of economies and there will be a balance between them. When one type of economy does not work well for a particular purpose it will probably be replaced by another type of economy that offers greater value to the citizens. It is up to citizens to help balance these types of economies, knowing that an increase in one means a decrease in another.