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Economics is pseudo-science at best. There are no perfect markets, and thus no ability to test theories. It's no surprise that "studies" continue to prove how m

Economics is pseudo-science at best. There are no perfect markets, and thus no ability to test theories. It's no surprise that "studies" continue to prove how much better the wealthy are, or how the middle class worked hard, and people with money deserve it. Economists have to get paid too.

49531 7y ago
I think the fact that business school exists at all should be our first clue that Economics is mostly pseudo-science. It has little material value aside from propagandizing the ideas of the wealthy.
- Ambele 7y ago
  I disagree. I hold an unusual opinion that all congress members should be required to take an economics class before assuming office because they literally are the ones running our economy. Learning economics helps your thought process in many ways and makes you a better decision maker when it comes to deciding on micro and macroeconomic policies. Weighing benefits, negative externalities, and costs when making investments or policies is exactly what economics trains you best for. Our brains are not designed for decision making involving large numbers of people or large sums of money and by default we fall back on making emotional decisions based on anecdotal experiences. The teaching of Economics helps keep your logic side front and center and allows you to make better, more efficient, and more impactful decisions at lower social and economic costs than would be arrived at by default. Are you able to understand the implications and effects of taxes and government spending when there are 2 trillion dollar deficits instead of 2 billion dollar deficits? Economics-style thinking is very valuable. If you weren't blessed to have had a great economics professor in your high-school and college years, I recommend reading Freakonomics by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. It was a required reading for my AP economics course and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it cover-to-cover.
  - pnutjam 7y ago
    Economics is good to learn, just like other theories. My problem is when it's used to "prove" things.
la_barba 7y ago
Well, there are many topics that we do science with, and which have multiple variables that we can't always control for, especially if you're doing survey studies for health, or disease or other macro-level stuff. It seems like the extremes of micro and macro of most systems of knowledge are always subject to a large amount of variance. That said a lot of macro-economics is very hard to replicate, making it of dubious value.

49531 7y ago

I think the fact that business school exists at all should be our first clue that Economics is mostly pseudo-science. It has little material value aside from propagandizing the ideas of the wealthy.

Ambele 7y ago
I disagree. I hold an unusual opinion that all congress members should be required to take an economics class before assuming office because they literally are the ones running our economy. Learning economics helps your thought process in many ways and makes you a better decision maker when it comes to deciding on micro and macroeconomic policies. Weighing benefits, negative externalities, and costs when making investments or policies is exactly what economics trains you best for. Our brains are not designed for decision making involving large numbers of people or large sums of money and by default we fall back on making emotional decisions based on anecdotal experiences. The teaching of Economics helps keep your logic side front and center and allows you to make better, more efficient, and more impactful decisions at lower social and economic costs than would be arrived at by default. Are you able to understand the implications and effects of taxes and government spending when there are 2 trillion dollar deficits instead of 2 billion dollar deficits? Economics-style thinking is very valuable. If you weren't blessed to have had a great economics professor in your high-school and college years, I recommend reading Freakonomics by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. It was a required reading for my AP economics course and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it cover-to-cover.
- pnutjam 7y ago
  Economics is good to learn, just like other theories. My problem is when it's used to "prove" things.

la_barba 7y ago

Well, there are many topics that we do science with, and which have multiple variables that we can't always control for, especially if you're doing survey studies for health, or disease or other macro-level stuff. It seems like the extremes of micro and macro of most systems of knowledge are always subject to a large amount of variance. That said a lot of macro-economics is very hard to replicate, making it of dubious value.