Are The Big Four Econ Errors Biases? [ minimum wage vs string theory ]

Consider how differently the public treats physics and economics. Physicists can say that this week they think the universe has eleven dimensions, three of which are purple, and two of which are twisted clockwise, and reporters will quote them unskeptically, saying "Isn't that cool!" But if economists say, as they have for centuries, that a minimum wage raises unemployment, reporters treat them skeptically and feel they need to find a contrary quote to "balance" their story.

Well, since not many people understand [or even think they understand] the string theory, the depicted reaction to the purported physicists' announcement is a common self-defense mechanism. They do not know, and they know that they do not know ["known unknown"].
OTOH, everyone who has to manage from one paycheck to another, or to manage one's investment portfolio [however badly and inefficiently], has a legitimate claim to a small measure of economics skills and understanding. In their heads [despite the dictum of Warren Buffett that most investors arrive to their investment decisions using not heads, but completely different [lower] parts of their respective anatomies]- so, in their heads that degree of skills and understanding is usually magnified - thus they do have, and offer, the opinions in the field [a "poorly known known"]. Hence the difference. And it is precisely because of the limited nature of these skills and knowledge in the majority of the people concerned that the unsound ideas find defenders and proponents. Were they completely and self-knowledgeably ignorant, the debate would not have arisen.

I don't think most economists have ever used a slide rule, so econ doesn't have the same awe factor physics does. Think of the kinds of kids you know who went on to become rocket scientists versus the kids that went on to become accountants.

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