Disguised | Unemployment

The tragedy is not that these people are lazy. Far from it. They often work grueling hours. The tragedy is that their labor is structurally redundant. They are trapped in a system where the only thing more wasteful than employing them would be firing them—because there is nowhere else for them to go.

Measuring disguised unemployment is notoriously difficult compared to open unemployment. disguised unemployment

The additional labor does not increase the final product. The tragedy is not that these people are lazy

On the surface, no one is sitting idle. Every family member is out in the field, weeding, sowing, or watering. To a passerby, they all look "employed". or watering. To a passerby

There is no magic bullet. But economists agree on the broad strokes: