Why Economics is Cool... seriously

The following is a quote by Adam Smith (considered to be the father of economics) in his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I, Section I, Chapter I, p. 9, para.1.:

"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."


I love this quote!!  My second degree is in economics, and my first (agribusiness) focused heavily on economics.  In most of my classes, my professors would talk about "incentives," and what motivates people to do what they do (this is important when you're trying to figure out how to get them to do something different). 
Any economic models we looked at relied on the assumption that people act in ways that maximize their personal benefit, and in class, this was usually measured by monetary (or at least tangible) gains, mostly because it's hard to quantify the "utility" or happiness that someone gets from cheering for their favorite football team (go CATS--beat the griz!!!!), owning one more car, teaching a class, snowboarding, or whatever.  The cool thing though, is that while the models we used in  class might apply in generalities, they do not necessarily apply to individuals.  The reason for this is that individuals take into consideration those things that are not tangible, or that cannot be measured quantitatively, such as the happiness (or sadness) that their actions bring to other people!!

Again:

"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."

Think about it--there's so many little things that people do that don't really bring them any benefits other than just seeing the happiness of those around them:  stopping to ask someone if they're okay if they slipped on the ice, dropping off cookies to someone who has had a hard day, helping someone dig their car out of the snow, sharing their lunch with a friend who hasn't had time to eat all day... the list could go on and on. And that is cool :)