Hummer also won't work if you apply it in a wrong way, thus to make economic theories work - just study and understand it up to adequate level... at least consider limitations as 'ceteris paribus' .. etc... In general - economic theories are not 100% predetermined rules - it's more stochastic with defined by theory probability of outcome more than ~70% (sometimes, but often even P>50% is enough) ... there are also hypotheses rather than theories... screwed implementation of these theories - is another story.. All in all economics is humanitarian/social science, and as society changes (or on psychological level, individual reaction/rationale) - so economic theory should be adjusted for such changes.
I have found Austrian Economics to be a helpful view to use when looking at economic issues. There are many good books on the subject as well as free podcast books and other information at the webiste: http://mises.org/
Of course, I cannot seriously and totally dismiss economics as taught by academia. Some people must at least know what is the the conventional views. I vaguely sense disputes within the academia on economics to be like between religious factions, like the disputes between Austrians and Keynesians (?), etc. Whoever can tell who's "right" - we just have to embrace our economic religion. And just as whether a person accepts or don't accept the existence of God, a lot depends on what material they read in the past - and some may occasionally be "born-again" !
Actually economics is beautiful science. One of the most beautiful and mysterious. Due to its importance it has been manipulated by politicians and other interests. There is no theory in economics, there is just economics. Theories have invented mostly by those infecting economics with their "mathematical thinking" "and their politics". Wanna be an economists?? Start reading, start deducting, but above all.........have logic. Logic can only be obtained by a good taste of common sense. But it has been proven in our societies that common sense is the least common of all. Peace
Funny how economists each have somewhat different projections, and the ones that accidentally close (out of the unpteen thousands of them) are considered as gurus It is about as impressive as the one who was closest to "guess how many jelly beans are in this jar"