Mind the consequences

Abstract Looking at the pervasiveness of model-driven public and especially economic policy, which in turn is quantification- and (especially) numbers-based, this chapter outlines the pitfalls and problems of such an approach. This is the case for the current discourse and classical, Gadamerian hermeneutics, and also applies to the thinking of the German Historical School of Economics. We pay special attention to issues in the public sector, and to the underlying ideologies that make quantitative modelling so pervasive and so attractive. In doing so, we pursue a two-step approach: first, we seek greater modesty in using numbers and models; second, we question the paradigm altogether.