Designed for high school economics students as a public service project of the American Fletcher National Bank, the booklet examines the fundamentals of the profit system in attempts to dispel common misconceptions held by students. A comparison is made between newspaper carriers and big business entrepreneurs by considering the risks made in investing one's money and energy in an effort to make a profit. Next, reasons for overestimation by the public of the profits of business are pointed out: (1) glowing and often misleading annual reports by corporations; (2) misunderstanding of the terms, "gross profit" and "net profit"; and (3) underestimating the amount corporations pay in federal taxes, labor, shareholder dividends, equipment and expansion. Former newspaper carriers like George McGinnis, Bob Hope, Johnny Bench, John Wayne, former President Herbert Hoover, astronaut John Glenn, and Willie Mays are listed as 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. The importance to the free enterprise system of competition for profit maximization is stressed. The document emphasizes that well over 90 percent of all the resources available to the federal government for aid to the sick and elderly, for military security, and for countless welfare programs come ultimately from the productivity of the American business system and the profit motive. (LH)