Why is economic discussion considered small talk?

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I think the reason is that, deep inside, most people hate small talk - they have small talk, not because they like small talk, but because they like to talk eith each other, and most of the time the only "avaliable" conversation is small talk.

And talking about economics (or politics, or sports) is, exactly, a way of trying to say something more interesting than small talk.

I didn't say in the 50s or '60s...I said in their '50s and '60s, meaning the people who were talking.

However, I may PM you as I have a question about the economy of the '50s that George Reisman hasn't gotten back to me about yet...

Yeah, it would be more interesting than small talk...if they honestly had some idea what they were even talking about!

I doubt that I could be useful - I am an european non-academic economist, then, if you want historic details about the economy of the 50s (and I guess that you are interested in american economics), my knowledge is very limited - I know the historical trends (like the produtivy growth) and know very well (in my opinion) the economic theory, but not much about the factual details.

thanks anyway, and I do appreciate your honesty in regards to it.

I guess they only spoke about their own economy, and not economy as an academic subject as such?

BTW, people can also talk about the weather without being meteorologists.

small talk is a societal safety valve of sorts. people let off steam that way. but it also has its downside, the steamletting can become a self-amplifying chain of bile that grows into the teaparty movement.



please keep in mind that people of all stripes will talk, and are inclined to talk about all sorts of things that they are not actual experts in. just look towards hollywood or washington d.c. for examples. or moi. you can't change human nature.
and since you are an economically knowledgeable person here, please tell us all what CAN be done? this "enquiring" mind wants to know.

If you need a microscope to see it, it doesn't affect the average person on the street and thus isn't part of what they mean by a "good" economy. As far as the average person on the street is concerned, only two things matter:

(1) full employment
(2) nondecreasing average wages

There are certainly things happening under the covers - for example, improvements in IT infrastructure methodologies in the 1980s laid the groundwork for productivity improvements in the 1990s, and certain changes in U.S. housing regulations in the 1990s sowed the seeds of the current recession - but those are things that the average person does not care about.


Ever heard the saying "misery loves company"? Neurotypicals feel better about their woes if they know other people share their misery. It's not logical, but that's the way a lot of people are.

I think the reason it is "small talk" is because people are actually repeating what they heard on last night's 9:00 news or read on the front page of MSNBC. They figure other people are hearing about it, experiencing it, so its a topic everyone can contribute to.

who cares about the economy - it's a load of nonsense designed to infer middle aged folk matter!! !! !

These days, the economy is a big topic because we are very slowly getting out of a major recession.

It's a way to commiserate.

And frankly, I think it's also a way to feel people out. To see if someone is in your approximate income level, or looks at the world in a way somewhat similar to you, without putting the person directly on the spot.

Yeah, this would bother me, too.

A special interest of mine comes up, I seemingly have a chance to talk about it (finally!), but not really because the people aren't really interested ! !

heh, dude...do you realize how often that actually happens?

From your shot, you look like a young guy( much like myself)....trust me, in your lifetime you're gonna see way more bad economies than good ones.

AardvarkGoodSwimmer, thank you for understanding.

I think it's simply because these days it seems everyone knows something, or can say something about it. They can smile and nod, don't have to say much unless they want to, lol, and almost everyone has seen the effects somewhere or another. Like, if someone says the economy is bad, someone else could say "yeah... 3 or 4 people I know lost their jobs this week" and link it to other things from that too. It's something that could trickle down into much smaller things, but basically, it's just a bunch of people griping about something they can't really do anything about, as someone mentioned before.

Granted, if it can create so much topic from just the start... maybe that is why? It CAN lead to other things just by mentioning something small at the start? A small topic develops into many different small topics eventually, but it was all started by one small comment.... like "how are you? How do you like the weather?" "Oh, I don't like it one bit, I have to walk home." "oh, you don't take the bus?" "No, I hate buses"... or something like that, lol-I'm not very good at it. But lots of things considered small talk seem to be a single thought that has many directions in which it could go.

The economy always seems like a never ending complaint fest basically, though, lol... well, until that obnoxious guy in the back yells that it's doing just fine and it's all in their heads *grin* (that would be fun to do).

Yes, it does always seem like a never ending complaint fest. The thing with the weather is--despite the fact that one can't do anything about it, they can still prepare for it.

Plenty can be done about the economy at all times, and no one ever seems prepared...and what's stranger is that they never seem to remember they were just complaining to their friends about it 3 minutes ago....

Haha, while true that they seem to forget... I doubt that is true. When you only have one thing to fall back on for conversation, people tend to keep using that over and over to start a whole new discussion, even if the discussion hasn't ended. All someone has to do is *sigh* and say something like "the economy is really going downhill", even in mid discussion, and people will just nod and agree, haha. It's interesting really.

I don't know much about the economy stuff really-I can't keep up with it well... but I do know, even if you are prepared for the weather that is supposed to be (in my area at least), it's never an absolute that it will be. So people in my area always complain about it. My mom used to say the Missouri motto should be "If you don't like the weather here, stick around for 5 minutes!" (because it will change, haha).

Know those jokes you see on TV sometimes about the weather men not predicting accurately, so families decide to have parties because they are told it will be nice, then it shows them and it's pouring rain? That is us, in a nutshell. We used to go to this place every year, and usually it was nice... but the weather man usually didn't say a ton about it. One year, he was just going on and on about how nice it was going to be... we got there, and they were selling umbrellas and people were huddled in tiny circles eating their ice cream because it was so cold/rainy. We actually ran into the weather man there, haha... good times. I love irony.