Quote Originally Posted by Kendal View Post
This is so far beyond right that it's unfathomable. If I can convince some people that the moon is made of green cheese, does that make me right?
Yes to all intense purposes it will if you are selling shares in a cheese mining space expedition.
That doesn't make me right, just successful at exploiting stupidity.

Yes you are right that the moon's composition is a scientific fact. You are comparing economics to astonomy. Are you are saying economics is a science which can be proven like astronomy.
No, I'm not trying to say that. I'm saying that economics is essentially gambling. You're betting that your money will be worth something in the future. Sadly, too many people lose that bet because hucksters and thieves can manipulate the markets by making people believe they know what they're talking about.

If we sitick on this side of the fence then if you convince millions of people there is a god then those people will act just the same as if it is a fact and it will make no differnce fact or fiction.
My point exactly. Just because you can make people act as if something is true, doesn't make it necessarily true. It is quite easy for normal, everyday actions, to believe and act as if the world is flat. That doesn't make it so. It's possible for someone to preach beautifully and persuasively about how the world is flat. That does not make it so. Every world leader can stand up in solidarity and proclaim that the world is flat. It does not make it so.

But stand up with a bad toupee and coke-bottle glasses and state that the economy is in the toilet and idiots around the world will panic and make your statement right? That, my friend, is lunacy. We should immediately begin an investigation to see who will benefit from such a panic. I guarantee that Mr. bad toupee will be among them.

And yet again I long for that isolated cabin in the mountains where I can hole up and watch the human race destroy itself in madness.