Whether we like it or not, it is a fact that economics cannot remain an esoteric branch of knowledge accessible only to small groups of scholars and specialists. Economics deals with society’s fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen.
DBx: Mises here does not refer to the formal study of economics. Instead, he refers to efforts to grasp a basic understanding of the economic way of thinking – an understanding, for example, that using resources to produce more of good X requires the sacrifice of some of goods Y and Z (“There’s no such thing as a free lunch”), that intentions are not results, and that the ultimate goal of economic activity is to increase people’s abilities to consume over time and not to increase people’s need to work.
