The government of a free society serves one and only one function: the preservation of individual rights. The voluntary exchanges of individuals (and peacefully determined organizations of individuals) in such a system constitute the free market. As should be clear from all of Section 4, the free market tends to maximize general conditions of economic prosperity. Much of our praxeological analysis can be summarized by an apt metaphor: in the free market, individuals enjoy, in the most complete and direct manner possible, the fruits (sweet or bitter) of their own actions. Consequently, the free market directly promotes the development of a sense of personal self-responsibility among individuals. Responsibility is the recognition that one must act to produce the values necessary to one's life and happiness and that one must therefore accept the consequences of one's actions or inaction. While the truism that freedom requires responsibility as a condition is often recognized, the reverse relation is less often understood—namely, that responsibility is likely to develop only under conditions of freedom. Trends introduced on each page are shown in red on the graph at the bottom.