The error begins when man is mistaken for a number, he isn’t.  He chooses.  He acts.  He changes his mind.  This isn’t algebra.  It’s life.  You can’t put uncertainty in a spreadsheet and expect truth to come out the other end.  Models are always wrong because man defies calculation.

Every economic theory that starts with math instead of man is flawed from the start.  Preferences are not constants.  Values shift.  Time passes.  To act is to choose, and to choose is to reveal.  That’s economics.  Not data, not charts, not simulations.

The system is pretending.  It rewards the pretense.  Economists today talk like engineers, but they aren’t building machines.  They’re describing people.  People aren’t variables.  They’re agents.  People don’t act just because something pays—they act because something matters.

The mainstream refuses to admit this.  They seek precision where there can only be understanding.  They run regressions on noise and call it discovery.  When reality contradicts the equation, they adjust the inputs.  When that fails, they blame the irrationality of man—as if the fault lies in people, not the model.

This is fraud, not science.

The honest economist accepts limits.  He begins with the actor.  He uses logic, not statistics.  He seeks cause, not correlation.  He doesn’t pretend to predict, he explains.  That’s enough.

To act is to pursue ends with means.  That’s it.  No formula can improve upon it.  All else is dressing.

The further economics drifts from this truth, the more confused the public becomes.  This confusion benefits power.  When money is misunderstood, theft is disguised.  When markets are misunderstood, planning seems reasonable.  When value is misunderstood, coercion seems justified.

The world doesn’t need more equations.  It needs more clarity.  It needs fewer economists and more thinkers.

Return to first principles.  Begin with man.  End with reality.

References

John Elliot Cairnes; The Character & Logical Method of Political Economy

Alfred Schutz; The Phenomenology of the Social World