Economic science

Economic science is often in disagreement as to what should be done in such cases. Is the free market the universal remedy that will fix all of the problems within the system?
 
Critics dispute the claim that in practice free markets create perfect competition, or even increase market competition over the long run. Whether the marketplace should be or is free is disputed; many assert that government intervention is necessary to remedy market failure that is held to be an inevitable result of absolute adherence to free market principles. These failures range from military services to roads, and some would argue, to health care. This is the central argument of those who argue for a mixed market, free at the base, but with government oversight to control social problems.
 
There is a minority of economists, however, who do not see economics as scientific in Popper's sense. A group of economists called the Austrian school, for example, has argued that economics starts with assumptions and that economic theory is the logically deduced results of those assumptions. If the theory does not fit the facts, one cannot conclude that the theory is wrong, but only that it is inappropriate to apply the theory in that particular situation because the initial conditions do not agree with the assumptions of the theory.
 
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