I went to school for economics.

When I asked any practical question about the economy my professors would talk about the problem for a bit. They would almost always do the "on one hand this on the other hand that" economist thing. Then they would usually tell me I should go ask some other professor who specialized in the pertinent subject if I wanted to know more.

If I then went to the specialist they would usually end up doing the two handed economist thing again and conclude that they strongly suspected things went one way or the other but that the whole question would be well served with more data and study if we wanted to understand it better.

Even professors who held strong opinions would often admit that they might be wrong and that different economic conditions could render their position on correct policy untrue.

Hearing politicians say anything about economics usually sickens me. They talk with such certainty. Ask an honest labor economist the ramifications of rasing the minimum wage you'll walk away realizing shit is tricky. Any one who says otherwise is full of shit.

Looking back I can only think of one professor who didn't preface most conversations with a phrase like ”the data suggests that..." and he was a bit of a crazy old dude.