3 ms·
you know, it's funny. most people would put the start of economic thought ~1776 when Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations. That means it's been around less th
by dvvarf 17y ago
you know, it's funny. most people would put the start of economic thought ~1776 when Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations. That means it's been around less than 250 years. Sure it may not describe physical processes, but economics does try to model the real world. SCIENCE wasn't too far along 250 years after inception. I mean, we still believed that the world was flat not too long ago. give it time, the data will come. mistakes will be made.
- berntb 17y ago>give it time, the data will come. I'm very much not an expert, but that seemed optimistic. Economy's problem is that it describes a system which contain (more or less) intelligent beings who read up on economic theory -- and the beings then modifies their behavior from those studies... So to get data and build models, it seems there must be some fix point to that function, somewhere...? :-) (To add maiming to injury, those beings change culture and probably basic motivations every generation, these days.) I have respect for economy and economists, they seem to do a reasonable good job from a bad position. But I'm happy I went with other interests.