[WalterBright]

> earnestly misinformed about economics

Economics is a weird discipline where everyone becomes an expert on it at age 15. I've even seen people confidently expound on economics when it's clear they don't even understand the difference between revenue and profit.

In contrast, nobody is willing to argue with a physicist unless they are at least as educated in physics as their counterpart is.

It's really a shame that although we live in a market economy, there is no attempt whatsoever in K-12 to explain how markets, business, and accounting work. A high school graduate is unlikely to even grasp what compound interest is.

[edmundsauto]

There are a number of subjects like this. I feel it has something to do with not making predictions about the future -- leaves no clear indication of good/bad decisions that are tied to skill.

The really interesting areas like this is something like fringe/doomsday religions, that do make predictions about the future. When these predictions inevitably fail to pass, the believers double down.

[rapind]

Because economics isn't a real science. As soon as someone starts talking about it like it is a science my bullshit alarm rings and I politely extract myself from the conversation.

[AngrySkillzz]

This is basically my point. Didn't particularly mean to criticize davidxc, more the tendency for people on HN to assume that because they're good at programming they must also know a lot about economics, the stock market, and etc.

[edmundsauto]

To be fair, there might not be anyone who can opine on economics and be correct. It's all either survivor/hindsight bias, or making indistinct, unverifiable predictions.

Economics happens to have high stakes, so people flock to it. Nobody really knows what's going on.

[WalterBright]

We do know a few things, such as attempts to repeal the law of Supply & Demand fails again and again. We also know there is no Free Lunch, as every effort to implement one has failed.

It's like I am no physicist, but I know that anyone who claims he's invented a Perpetual Motion machine is either a fraud or made a mistake.