What are some things that economists take for granted that other people don’t?
First of all, that it’s very useful to think about extremely simple stories. When economists want to think about the implications of a free-trade pact, for example, they’ll often start by telling you a story about two people living on an island and trading with three people living on some other island, and working through carefully what happens when you open up trade in a situation like that. Most people react badly to that. They think that you are stripping away all of the important, real-world factors, whereas economists have learned—as I think all scientists have learned—that until you understand the simple stories, you’re never going to understand the complicated ones. What would you say is a misconception about the field of economics? That it’s all about money, or that it sets aside the actual desires of actual human beings, which is not just a misconception, it’s the exact opposite of the truth. The purpose of economics is to determine how it’s possible to fulfill the desires of
