A paragraph to ponder form "A theory of the allocation of Nobelist's time" by Steve Cicala:
Yet the “invisible hand” is a metaphor for an empirical proposition, not doctrine and certainly not magic. More than simply extending economics, Gary’s work tests this proposition by demonstrating the validity of the economic approach at its most basic level: human behavior. The proof is by contradiction: suppose decisions to marry, have children, go to school, commit crimes, etc., are all totally unresponsive to incentives and the economic approach utterly fails to explain how people behave in these contexts. Why would one put any stock in our ability to understand markets? Is there too little competition for spouses? Are the stakes too low when facing time in prison? Of course not.