Thread by @BrankoMilan

If your definition of economics is this:
"I would like to start with the one that I would have used when I was young and studied Marxist economics. Economics matters because it enables you to look at the grand political and economic changes in history and

to explain them using economic factors. In other words, it is, if I can say so, a branch of historical materialism. Decisions driven by economic factors shape societies and make them change."
Then you must read classics.

If your definition is this:
"A neoclassical view of economics would be more pragmatic. It would be to argue that economics matters - and to use Alfred Marshall’s definition there - because it deals with our ordinary life and its objective is to improve that ordinary life,

to make our incomes higher, to allow us to have more free time, and to make poverty disappear so that we can enjoy other activities that we like while having a satisfactory standard of living."
Then, you should read them but perhaps not as carefully as under the first definition.

If your definition is:
"Economics is the allocation of scarce resources among the alternative ends."
Then you can read only selected classic texts.

If your definition is that economics is just what businesses and finances do now, they perhaps you should not bother with classic texts.