If the role of physicians is to attend to one's physical well-being, and that of priests, rabbis, and imans to attend to one's spiritual well-being, then the role of economists is to attend to one's material well-being. Indeed, the very word "economy" means to attend to the affairs of one's household. In the modern world, economists are those who think about a rather large household, namely that of an entire nation, or even the world economy as a whole.

Like physicians and priests we sometimes prescribe unpopular treatments: drink in moderation and don't smoke says the doctor, don't steal nor covet your neighbor's wife admonishes the priests, and don't jack up the money supply and don't restrict free trade pipes in the economist.

Like physicians and priests, economists sometimes prescribe unpopular treatments: don't jack up the money supply, don't restrict free trade, and set clear rules of the economic game and enforce them.

But even though your doctor urges moderation, you may still not listen. Even though your priest urges you to lead a blameless life, you may still choose to lose your way. And even though the economist urges sound economic policy,  politicians may still ignore our sage advice. Doctor, priest, and economist, we all are teachers and our students are of varying quality. Some students follow our pearls of wisdom to the crossing of the t and the dotting of the i, and other students don't.

But don't economists disagree? If so, whose advice shall we follow? Well, yes, economists disagree, and so do physicians and so do spiritual leaders. In fact, some physicians live unhealthy lives, some priests sin, and some economists proffer bad advice. But this does not mean that doctors, priests, and economists do not know better, and failures by wayward members of our profession does not excuse you to ignore our counsel. On the whole, in fact, our record is pretty good: the average human being is definitely healthier and wealthier than he/she was even fifty years ago and, although this is hard to measure, some argue that humanity is also more moral socially, if not privately, than we used to be (e.g., we once condoned political mass murder by looking the other way but now we capture murderous political leaders and at least discuss how to prosecute them by means of an International Criminal Court).

So, when economists urge free trade, we truly mean free trade and not some politically expedient concoction that benefits some at the expense of others. When we urge deregulation, we truly mean deregulation and not deregulation of only one-half of the California energy market for example. When we urge non-interference in markets, we truly mean non-interference (no price or quantity controls). When we urge competitive markets, we truly mean competitive, not cartels and monopolization. When we urge environmental protection (because from nature we draw our collective livelihood) and reductions in military spending worldwide (because these tend to destroy rather than create wealth), we likewise should be listened to. Advice such as this really is meant for the good of all, even if the medicine tastes bitter to one or the other of our patients.