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Economics is scientific — and much more complicated than physical sciences because people are involved. If I drop a rock with a certain mass from a tower of a c
by gbacon 7y ago
Economics is scientific — and much more complicated than physical sciences because people are involved. If I drop a rock with a certain mass from a tower of a certain height, I can safely assume that my measurements of that one event are representative of all similar events in the future. Predicting based on observations of someone’s behavior today what he will do tomorrow is highly problematic because in a real sense the same individual tomorrow will be a different person.
- throwaway18468 7y agoThis is the difference between the science and not-science. The former allows predicting future, the latter doesn't.
- sprafa 7y agoExactly. Behavioural economics can do this, but macro fails at this at every point, or has so far. I think of it as essentially we’re at the bloodletting level of economics - we sort of think we understand how things work, but really, we don’t, and we might be causing more harm than benefit through our prescriptions.