I try my best to dispel this widespread perception that economics is too complicated for non-economist and actually it's very strange because people have very strong opinions about everything Iraq war gay marriage does God exists you know global warming you all have very strong views on these things despite not having a degree in theology not having a degree in energy economics not having a degree in internship relations but when it comes to economics people say oh yeah it's for specialist you know I don't know but why I mean if you can have a very strong view on Iraq or Afghanistan without a degree in international relations you should have a strong view on government economic policy without a degree in economy you know I say that this is only because the economist have been fantastically successful in making people believe that it is actually a lot more difficult than what it really is so they'll tell you oh you know I could explain it to you but then you don't understand you 95% of Economics says common sense of course made to look difficult with the use of jagon and Mathematics and even the remaining 5% can be understood at least in its Essence if not in all technical details if someone bothers to explain it to you in an accessible way for example what is economics you know the ethical foundations of Economics whether you can separate economics and politics and how different ways of conceptualizing the economy affects the way we see the world you know for example people think that today's free market economics is a direct descendant of Adam Smith but this is not true you know in Adam Smith and other so-call classical economies the society the economy was conceptualized as being made up of classes not individuals and the whole Theory evolved around how the way these different classes with different material interests behave affect the way capital is accumulated the economic growth income is distributed and so on today in free market economics that there's only individual you know when you tell people out you know isn't their class they say no I mean that that's a old Marxist concept but if that's the case why do the marketing companies have all this class categories when they do marketing campaign strategy they look at groups ABC C1 C2 yeah Target advertising according to the type of people now many economists will tell you that economics is a science in which there's only one Right theory there are at least nine different major schools of economics and in the several more if you count minor schools or split the major ones into Soft Schools each with its own unique strength and weaknesses and for free market economics alone you have three different kinds classical economics neoclassical economics Austrian economics so actually there isn't one Right theory and my contingent is that we need all this diverse approaches to economics in order to fully understand our economy because they all make certain assumptions they all have different underlying political and ethical values they have all sorts of different theories about how the economy grows and so on and to make this point I give you the Singapore problem or what I call life is Stranger Than Fiction you know if you read only the financial newspapers like the Wall Street Journal or The Economist magazine you'll be only told that Singapore succeeded because of uh his free trade policy and his welcoming attitude towards foreign investors this is partly true I mean they did have those things but you will never be told that Singapore government owns nearly 90% of all the land 85% of housing is provided by government owned housing Corporation and a staggering 22% of GDP is produced by state owned Enterprises so in talking about Singapore I always tell my student look give me one economic theory it doesn't matter what it is neoclassical Marxist Austrian sharian give me one economic theory that can explain Singapore well there isn't so you need to know these different theories to fully understand how a country like Singapore could succeed so in this regard my advice is that you should not be a man or a woman with a hammer by learning only one kind of eonic theory because whatever that theory is that once you believe that one theory is true like the man with a hammer you will start to see everything as a nail so I say that you should get a Swiss knife yeah in this dominant economic theory that is uh of today that is neoclassical Theory people are mainly conceptualized as consumers and work is considered as what these economies called this utility that you have to put up with so that you can own money with which you consume goods and services and then derive pleasure or what they call utility that's your aim deriving pleasure from consumption but what happens in a workplace of fundamentally affects us not just our immediate physical and psychological well-being but also our identity and our sense of self-worth and our self fulfillment this is why these days in many rich countries a lot of people are very unhappy compared to say a couple of decades ago despite the fact that they have higher income why because the work has become more stressful but then you know Economist tell you no you should be happy you know Britain today has at 20% higher income than say 1975 you why aren't you happy yeah you know my book is not just an explanation of economic theories and facts it's also a discussion about the role of economics in public life and in this regard I have three sets of observations to make the first one is Never Trust an economist and that includes me yeah you know professional economists that like to say ah we know what is correct you know no they don't have a monopoly of a truth I already told you that there are nine different kinds of economic theory so the right the conclusion depends on which Economist you talk to you and I argue that it is entirely possible for people who are not professional economists to have sound judgments on economic issues I even argue that sometimes their judgments may even be better than those of professional economists because they may be more rooted in reality and less narrowly focused and I argue that indeed the willingness on the part of the ordinary citizens to challenge professional Economist and other experts is a foundation of democracy you know if you really believe that all we have to do is to listen to The Experts to listen to the professional consensus of the experts why do you need democracy yeah let self-elected Elites that appoint each other and run the world you know this is why a lot of people are unhappy with the European Union the second point is the Latin phrase that is apparently written on the walls of the city hall of Gudda the city in the Netherlands which is famous for the chief and he says that yeah I'm not even going to pretend to speak Latin so it basically says listen even to the other side and I argue that this is the attitude you have have to have in debating on economic issues I'm not suggesting that you should have no opinion of your own but what I'm trying to tell you is that given the complexity of the world and given the necessarily partial nature of all economic theories you should be humble about the validity of your own favorite Theory and should keep an open mind about it finally even while I constantly make reform proposals I emphasize how difficult it is to change the economic reality well sometimes uh the reason is obvious I mean people who benefit from this status quo want to throw change by any means you lobbing bribery media propaganda and even violence but the status quo often gets defended even without some people actively being evil because that the thing about the market system is that the rule is $1 one vote you so this means that the ability of those with less money to refuse undesirable options given to them is highly constrained also we can be sus susceptible to beliefs that are against our own interest you know the best example is that what happened when Barack Obama tried to reform the American medical insurance system and there were all these pictures of all pensioners demonstrating against what they call Obamacare with plaque hearts that uh saying things like government hands of my medicare well except that Medicare is a government program well this is what the Marxist used to call false consciousness or also known as The Matrix yeah the movie but acknowledging the difficulties involved in changing the economic status quo should not make us give up the fight to create a better economy and better society yet yes changes are difficult but in the long run if enough people fight for something hard enough many impossible things can happen and don't forget I mean 200 years ago if you suggested America should abolish slavery You' have been branded at least unrealistic and that probably the Looney 100 years ago the the the British government put women in prison for asking for vote a lot of women actually said why do we need votes we have our husbands and brothers to represent our views well this is why I quot Antonio gramy the Italian Marxist who once said that we need to have pessimism of the intellect but optimism of the will yeah you have to accept the difficulties of changing this status quo but you have to believe that this can be done and finally as uh Nelson Mandela used to say it always seems impossible until it is done for