> economics was a science built upon the assumption that people are rational actors
You may have taken a statement made in jest literally. Homo economicus is a known fiction. Just as frictionless, airless physics are a known fiction. They're useful, however, for (a) defining a limit or ideal, (b) pedagogical purposes and (c) starting to think about a problem.
Microeconomics makes falsifiable predictions which can be repeated in experiment. (I'll go ahead and quibble over whether macroeconomics is a science. It's closer to an art, like politics. A field with its own rules and lessons worth learning, but without the capacity to experiment and make falsifiable predictions.)
You may have taken a statement made in jest literally. Homo economicus is a known fiction. Just as frictionless, airless physics are a known fiction. They're useful, however, for (a) defining a limit or ideal, (b) pedagogical purposes and (c) starting to think about a problem.
Microeconomics makes falsifiable predictions which can be repeated in experiment. (I'll go ahead and quibble over whether macroeconomics is a science. It's closer to an art, like politics. A field with its own rules and lessons worth learning, but without the capacity to experiment and make falsifiable predictions.)