[weeeeelp]

>One thing I never understood about the game was how TNT and minecarts are supposed to work, economically

They're not, really. Both function as a "fun" kind of item, TNT gets more useful in player-vs-player as an item to destroy other's bases, if you're into that sorta thing.

[eric__cartman]

or blast villages out of the map when playing in creative mode :)