I don't look down on economists at all but I am highly critical of them because they have the ears of our politicians when it comes to predicting the future.
The biggest problem I have with economist is when it comes to discussing technology and economy. While they have no problem having opinions about the effect of technology most treat it as an externality and not something central to their models.
Yet any economist worth their salt should do exactly that as technology has a bigger impact on the economy than what you can find in behavioral economics.
So the problem isn't the economist themselves but the power they have on public policy and that should be critiqued for the nonfactual base it is.
>While they have no problem having opinions about the effect of technology most treat it as an externality and not something central to their models.
This is not true at all.
I think you are confusing talking heads and pundits in TV with academic economics. Productivity, technology and economic growth
Technology and it's relation to economics is included in growth theories and it's important subject that it subject of active study. It's in the A in Solow–Swan model. The model predicts that in the absence of continuing improvements in technology, growth per worker must ultimately cease. More modern theories take the technology even more seriously.
Exponential growth isn't (economist don't like that because it creates radical uncertainty)
There are a few people like Tyler Cowen who take it seriously but most models used by governments (Like the Danish DREAM model) aren't even close to factoring those things in. And they are the ones who the politicians end up listening to.
The biggest problem I have with economist is when it comes to discussing technology and economy. While they have no problem having opinions about the effect of technology most treat it as an externality and not something central to their models.
Yet any economist worth their salt should do exactly that as technology has a bigger impact on the economy than what you can find in behavioral economics.
So the problem isn't the economist themselves but the power they have on public policy and that should be critiqued for the nonfactual base it is.