[tzs]

Econ 101 is using those models for the same reason Phys 101 uses Newtonian mechanics in a vacuum with rigid bodies of low mass and no charge and with all collisions being elastic.

They are a good enough approximation to reality in a lot of useful situations, and understanding them does help in later classes when they bring in relativity, electromagnetism, fluids, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, bodies that aren't rigid, and so on.

Even after you've got all that stuff under your belt the Phys 101 stuff remains useful, because often something that cannot be modeled accurately enough with just Phys 101 material can be modeled accurately enough if you take the Phys 101 model and tweak it a bit with the rest.

I believe its the same in economics.

[lesuorac]

When I took Econ 101 it was very much lectured into me that these models are all based on a bunch of assumptions.

The thing I ultimately found pretty amusing that nearly every model had perfect information, many buyers, many sellers as part of the assumptions and almost every time I see somebody citing Econ 101 either 2 or 3 of the assumptions aren't there.