I am not a professional economist but I find the subject fascinating. It is not because I have a love of math or numbers that I find it fascinating, in fact I am in large measure quite disinterested in numbers, math, and formulas. Does this seem like problem? To many it probably does because they associate economics with the technical side rather than the human side.

I was an English major and although I ultimately finished my schooling in computer science, I love words, concepts, and ideas. I suppose this is why I love to talk about politics and religion – two landscapes rich in ideas and concepts. As I continue to learn in life, I have found that the area of economics is overflowing with interesting and valuable ideas – even when one largely ignores the mathematical skyscrapers and sewers that many of us find daunting.

As I have studied, economics has revealed itself as a way to understand humans and how they interact with one another in a society. How they improve their lives through that interaction and as a secondary results improve their societies – or as the case may be – destroy them. Economics is a human area of study because without us there would only be botany and zoology. I have heard it said that the most important thing on this planet is humans and the most important aspect of humans is the relationships they build with one another.

Economics to a large degree strives to understand those relationships, the reason for their inception, and their outcomes. It is looking at why we act in different ways under different circumstances. Why do some people buy cars and other ride bikes, why do some create a business, why do people stop looking for employment, why do some charities fail when others do not, why do some societies escape poverty and some do not, why do some people trade with each other at every opportunity and others do not, what happens when a nation provides goods or services instead of a private business providing those things, and how does each of these forces impact our lives and the lives of our children and the world in which they grow?

Economics is not necessarily tied to money either. We often think it is because that is what our society often uses when transacting with one another. But is that the only way we interact? Hardly. We trade things, we borrow things, we interact with one another when physical things are not exchanged at all – only ideas. All of these things interactions can be described as economic transactions. We participate because we receive something of value that we believe to be equal or greater than what we lost.

When two women sit and talk and the first one shares a recipe for bread and the other shares a system for organizing a busy schedule, has not an economic transaction taken place. Items of value were exchanged and value created making both women more productive in the world. Sure, it might not be tracked by the government and show up as part of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but value was still exchanged and wealth created in the process.

If we take just a moment to think about one economic concept, Prices. We could spend days talking about the almost magical power by this influences our lives and informs our ability to choose our destiny. If I may quote: “We have a tendency to view prices as deception, a trick played on consumers to scam us into paying more than we like.  Prices are information.  Like ants tracing pheromones, prices provide signals for the billions of buyers and sellers that we call “the market.”  These prices guide our savings, our production and our consumption.  Isn’t it marvelous how we can use a price to evaluate all 3 of those functions?  Prices are like a universal language!”

I urge you to not stop there. There is much to appreciate about Prices, Incentives, Scarcity, Specialization, and Trade just to name a few. And none of it need require a calculator. In all my studying to date about economics – and it has been my favorite subject for the past five years or so – I have yet to pull out my calculator to understand something and yet my understanding of the world has grown many times over. I encourage you to explore this area of knowledge as well.

“The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

- Friedrich Hayek

If nothing more is accomplished by the study of economics than the ability to override hubris when assessing the world around us then something valuable has certainly been achieved.