From the Huffinton Post story one reader made this comment:
Economics is the most useless subject taught in college. They should change macro and micro economics into a study of historical economic events. Mathematicizing the subject gives the illusion that it is rigorous and scientific - it is neither. The subject has become the refuge of charlatans. 100% of all economists are charlatans!I'm glad I majored in economics. It develops a way of thinking about the world... but I have to admit there's a bit of truth in the statement.
Economics means different things to different people... In it's simplest form, I think it's hard to argue that it's important that someone know that it's quality may factor into someone's decision over price or visa versa.
ReplyDeleteI think the thing that hurts economics is that most if it seems mainly theory. All it takes is one outlier, one new material variable, or irrational behaviors and the whole theory could be thrown out of whack. We run into trouble when we treat these theories as truths rather than predictions.
Compound this problem with the fact that most people take what they read at face value and may not understand economics. Someone who reads a headline "markets set to fail" may not have the economics background to understand that this failure is based on a certain set of circumstances and accepts this headline as pure truth. But then again I can't claim to have the most extensive economics background - these are just my observations...