Hyphothises vs reality

I am studding Macro Economics right now and I really enjoy the class. Many people don't realize that Economics is considered a social science and not part of the business college or the math department. The unfortunate thing is that many economists act like economics is a physical science with math and absolute laws and answers instead of theories and models that predict general behavior.

Its funny to see the kids in class argue with the instructor why he is wrong and then prove him right with their arguments. We just recently were covering consumption and the instructor stated that people make their consumption decision based on their current income and their expected future income. Many of the students could not wrap their heads around that one. One went so far as to argue that he was uncertain about his future job prospects so he was not consuming more based on his future income. Of course he just proved the point, because his future was uncertain he was making a different consumption decision.

The fun part about discussing theories and models is the outliers and discovering why they do not follow the norm, for me that is where the rubber meets the road.