There is another huge difference, aside from the susceptibility to experiment of the two fields - in astronomy one studies an objective natural system, in the o

There is another huge difference, aside from the susceptibility to experiment of the two fields - in astronomy one studies an objective natural system, in the other one studies a subjective human-driven environment. The thing that troubles me most about economics is its apparent inability to address the fact that it cannot (yet?) make even modestly accurate predictions, and seems to be in denial about the implications of that fact. To be honest, I lost all interest in economics-as-science when I learned that its theories were based on the idea that people were "rational actors" - this so flies in the face of my life experience that it simply doesn't pass the smell test. I wouldn't throw the /whole/ thing out, but we have to be realistic about its limitations, and the fact that small changes in human sentiment or worldview may potentially completely invalidate its core assumptions.