Mention the word economics to folk and you get replies such as:
“It is really boring. I’m not into that kind of stuff…”
“It’s all about figures and people in gray suits.”
“I leave all that kind of thing to the experts.”
“You need a degree to understand all that.”
“What do you know about it anyway – you’re not an expert.”
“Economics is about the government and business; it has nothing to do with ordinary people.”
Yet.
What do people do with their wages every week, or month; and if they are unemployed, their dole money? They each economise. How much does the rent, or mortgage cost? Shoes for the kids, car, repairs, bills, – how do we budget weekly, monthly, year to year
The above is a tiny percentage of the thoughts that go through the average person’s head when making decisions on how to budget their income and resources. This is what we do almost every day of our lives. We attempt as best we can to balance our life-style with our income – particularly if we are unemployed. We are happy usually if we can attain the result Dickens, describes above – “happiness”. But on too many occasions and for so many people the result can be “misery”. This is perhaps why we find economics so “boring”. The fact that we look for so little in return for so much of our toil; and the reward and worth of our endeavour is always determined by the judgments of others. This, along with the fact the general public are not encouraged much to involve themselves with such seemingly highfaluting ideas such as economics.
The thing that makes economics boring and frustrating is that everything that ordinary folk attempt to do to improve their lot, is judged or valued in accordance with a rigid system that is specifically designed to keep them exactly where they are, so they see no point in being interested.
Lets put it this way.
Those who, earn the most money also have the best jobs, do the most creative work, own the most property, make the most decisions that affect us all, have the best educational opportunities, take up the most space, use the most resources, to power their lifestyles – are very much interested in economics
Where as:
Those of use who do the worst, dirtiest, boring jobs,get the least wages, do the least creative work, stay in the most unhealthy environments, do very little of the decision making, get the worst education system and so on… are usually to tired after work to make the time to study a system that persistently undoes them.
The economic system we live under (neoliberalism) is not designed to serve human needs. It is designed simply, to keep the rich and powerful at the top and the poor at the bottom. It is a system of economics that is so imbedded in the public psyche that it is sometimes difficult for people to see that there could be an alternative.
But there are alternatives. And they would work better with the way people imagine their lives should be lived.
There are two things we have to think about. They have nothing directly to do with economics. The first one is “hope” – without the hope in our ability to change things, we feel lost. The second is “vision” – without a vision of where we are going we are equally lost. These are things that can give us reason to be interested – when we are part of building new ideas – hope and vision compel us to understand and participate.