You claimed OP had no right in claiming causality could not be established unless an opposing data-set was present. Who says this data has to be present? Are econometrics infallible?
You're trying to analyze the human motivation for action in hopes of altering future action, all inside a vacuum void of real-life tests. You claim this type of empirical knowledge is impossible to attain, "(i.e. you can't run scientific experiments on people's lives, like telling random sample of people to go to college and others to not).", but I would disagree.
Companies go to great length to mine data about their customers and their behaviors, with the opportunity to run a-b tests and isolate causal relationships. We should should recognize econometrics for what it is, and that is a theoretical science, and that anyone has the right to question the integrity of claimed causal relationships.
You're trying to analyze the human motivation for action in hopes of altering future action, all inside a vacuum void of real-life tests. You claim this type of empirical knowledge is impossible to attain, "(i.e. you can't run scientific experiments on people's lives, like telling random sample of people to go to college and others to not).", but I would disagree.
Companies go to great length to mine data about their customers and their behaviors, with the opportunity to run a-b tests and isolate causal relationships. We should should recognize econometrics for what it is, and that is a theoretical science, and that anyone has the right to question the integrity of claimed causal relationships.