Designed for high school economics students as a public service project of the American Fletcher National Bank, the booklet examines the American free enterprise system as it relates to the traditional lemonade stand and its ability to make a profit. The parallel is made by considering some basic principles: (1) the constant need for capital to keep businesses growing; (2) the continuing push to develop goods and services which will be acceptable to the buying public; (3) the steady obligation to meet payrolls and other operating expenses and to pay back shareholders for their investment; and (4) the growing demand by government for a bigger bite of corporate profits through taxation. Examples of the way the entire business system in America has grown from humble beginnings to being the most productive, efficient economic system in the world today are seen in: the evolution of Ford Motor Company from a machinist's apprentice tinkering with an experimental gas engine; the Gillette enterprise created by a traveling salesman who deplored sharpening razors; and Disneyland and Disney World stemming from an advertising illustrator working in a garage studio. The document emphasizes that competition for profit increases efficiency while forcing down prices, thus providing an increasingly higher standard of living, higher pay, and a larger middle class than anywhere else in the world. (LH)