## The Language That Shouldn't Exist
Anyone ever see The Office?
I'm ashamed to admit that I've seen all the episodes, in order, at least 3 times.
Probably more.
In Season 9, Episode 3, Erin attempts to learn a new language. Dwight sees her trying to do this and offers her a different path. Dothraki.
He spends the whole episode teaching her an entirely false language from Game of Thrones. But she doesn't know this.
She's studious. She shows up. She learns it cold. Then she eventually learns that it's not real. And Dwight's just like, "It works on TV?"
That's what they did to us in econ class. (And the last 100+ years)
They taught you something that doesn't actually work in the real world. And now the whole world is using it to model their society.
Let's take the Philips curve, for example. As inflation goes up, unemployment it supposed to go down. But what happens when inflation goes up and unemployment continues to rise. An honest scientist would say "Oh, this formula isn't right, let's go back to the drawing board".
If this were a physicist, and he observed an increase in mass with the same acceleration resulted in a lower force, he'd ascertain that the classic "F = MA" no longer works. (Of course, that's never happened).
It goes deeper.
My above example assumed Economics is like Physics. But it's not.
Physics is an observational science, plus, it deals with matter (not humans; acting beings with free will) — particles, forces, things that don't have intentions.
Economics is a rational science, like geometry. There's no such thing as "data" that disproves the Pythagorean Theory.
It's something that you rationally figure out. Physics is based on observation and it's theories are treated as true until proven false.
Simple experiment. If I gave 50 people $10, what would they do with it?
If you said in your head, "I don't know". Then you would be correct.
Because we can't know. Every person is different.
But if you lower the temperature of water to 32 degrees Fahrenheit (all-else equal), the water will freeze. Every time.
So why do we pretend like economics operates any differently?
The very best,
Matt McMahon