Don’t you think economics should serve people rather than power? If not, why do we study economics, teach economics and practice economics? There is something strange about the relationship between economics and power. Wherever power goes, money seems to know the road. Credit recognizes the powerful. Investment recognizes them. Markets listen to them. Institutions open their doors to them. Even economic crises sometimes appear less frightening when you are standing on the stronger side of society.
But what about the ordinary person? The man waiting for his salary at the end of the month does not speak the language of economic power. Neither does the mother calculate whether the household budget can survive another increase in prices. Nor the young graduate sending applications from one company to another, wondering why education promised opportunity but the market offers uncertainty. These are not people outside economics. They are economics. Yet somehow, when we discuss economies, they disappear behind percentages.
Power has an interesting relationship with economics. It rarely waits in a queue. The powerful usually possess something beyond money. They possess access. They know where decisions are made, how institutions work, whom to approach and how to protect themselves when conditions become difficult. The ordinary citizen often possesses only his labour, savings, knowledge and hope. A humane economic system should reduce this distance.
Economics should make it possible for a teacher, driver, nurse, technician, small shopkeeper or young entrepreneur to participate meaningfully in prosperity. Banking should not merely protect those who already possess capital; it should responsibly help capable people create it. Education should not merely produce certificates; it should create economic mobility. Taxation should not become punishment for productivity, nor should privilege become a shelter from responsibility.
This is where literature sometimes sees society more clearly than economic reports. In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo forces us to look beyond an offence and examine the conditions surrounding a human being. John Steinbeck, in The Grapes of Wrath, brings economic hardship out of statistics and places it inside families, journeys and broken expectations. And in the world of Franz Kafka, individuals often stand helpless before enormous systems they cannot fully understand or influence. Perhaps modern economics needs to read such literature occasionally, not to become sentimental, but to remember whom systems are built for.
An economy cannot promise equality of outcome, and it should not destroy ambition in the name of fairness. People must work, innovate, compete, save, invest and take responsibility for their decisions. Businesses must earn profits. Investors deserve returns for taking risks. Wealth creation remains essential. But the road toward wealth should not be privately reserved for those who already possess power.
That is the practical challenge. Give small businesses reasonable access to finance. Protect genuine competition so that connections do not defeat competence. Invest in education that leads to employable skills. Design public services around human needs rather than administrative convenience. Encourage entrepreneurship without making failure a lifelong sentence. Control corruption because corruption is not merely a moral crime; it is an economic tax imposed by power upon those without it.
And when governments measure progress, let them walk beyond the spreadsheet. Ask whether wages can meet living costs. Ask whether a young person can realistically build an independent future. Ask whether a small business can compete fairly with a large one. Ask whether economic growth is creating opportunities beyond a privileged circle.
Because economics should not become the bodyguard of power. It should become the architecture of opportunity. The true achievement of an economic system is not that it makes powerful people more powerful. They usually possess enough mechanisms to protect themselves. Its greater achievement is when an ordinary person, without influence, privilege or powerful connections, can work honestly, compete fairly, live with dignity and still believe that tomorrow can be better than today.
Perhaps that is where economics should finally belong. Not beside power, but beside people.
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