Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. Previously I was very pro government intervention, but this book is great at explaining basic economic principles while ignoring mathematics. It might be called a little biased by mostly ignoring "market failures" yet basic physics also mostly ignore friction. Also regarding "meaningful": I had tried to get an understanding of how society works for some time and had even tried reading Capital by Marx but in the end I found most I wanted in Basic Economics.

Probably Sowell's Basic Economics