Experiments are pretty damn crucial to the entire scientific process, right? What if you couldn&#x27;t do <i>controlled</i> experiments? That&#x27;s where economics is right now. Until we either get enough data or economists can run actual experiments (ie those that don&#x27;t just rely on fabricated mathematical models) I don&#x27;t think we&#x27;ll have real rigor in economics.<p>In the meantime, we still have to do our best. People still want ways to predict the future which suffer <i>less</i> from human interference (which is ideally what a mathematical model will let you do). That&#x27;s still better than just asking people what they think (in some ways).<p>A lot of simplifying assumptions have to be made to say anything useful about a system which includes billions of intelligent actors trading trillions of dollars. There&#x27;s obviously room for improvement, and I think that&#x27;ll happen once people are given the proper tools to make it happen.