I never learn anything in these threads. It seems like everyone is just talking past each other with their pet theories and no particular way to tell which if any are correct or useful.
I don't know how to have a useful conversation about such topics, I understand your frustration. I suppose everyone has good intentions and is trying to help at the same time by sharing their theories - which could be bad or good, but definitely hard to digest, as a reader
Engineering takes theoretical principles and pits them into practice. Here's what the free body diagram of a structure might be, but how do you ensure it stays up with abnormal conditions and a client who's going the extra mile to cut costs?
Imagine if in engineering, constants changed the more precisely they were measured. pi is different in the USA because China measured it more precisely yesterday. Or if weather patterns changed to exploit the weaknesses of a building to maximize damage.
I don't think econ is theoretically irrational, it's just that the application in the public eye is seldom isolated to simple, static systems. When applied to simple systems, I think econ is quite reasonable and makes accurate predictions.
It's because economics is seen as a science but ignores (not completely) human behavior. You can't test economic theories with the scientific method because there is simply no way to create a market vacuum to test.
This is why behavioral economics is so interesting IMO. It's not definitive but it at least it provides explanations.
That does not describe what economics has looked like for a few decades already. These days, it’s all about human behavior. Just look at the sample of newest papers collected at NBER:
https://www.nber.org/papers?page=1&perPage=50&sortBy=public_...
If you look at these, it should be clear that most of published economics these days is basically social science done using quantitative methods. The homo economicus has always been a straw man, but these days it is laughably so.
The scientific method doesn't require laboratory controls; statistically controlled experiments are just as consistent with the scientific method.
Now, there are branches of economics which are, more of less overtly, not empirical science but essentially theology, the Austrian school being the most well-known, overt example, and they and their practitioners tend not to be distinguished from those of empirical economics when covered by the mainstream media...
I also tend to think we software "engineers"(haha) confuse our high salaries and prowess in one domain with a general level of intelligence that lets us outsmart experts in other fields.
Really though, this is a very difficult problem, and it very likely won't be solved on an anonymous discussion forum tailored to techno-news.
It's all mixed with politics, and generally policies are implemented to keep people short term happy, but long term not so happy.
And more to the point, what can or should I do on an individual level?
The OP was about home price to income ratio, and just like in one of the threads, I basically shopped based on monthly payment, not total price. I don't have any anchoring on the value of a particular structure or lot. Should I have made different choices?
This video explains the basic mechanisms pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHe0bXAIuk0