# What would be the best way to refute this statement?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-refute-this-statement/614420>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 1, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-refute-this-statement/614420 "2012-03-01T03:08:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-refute-this-statement/614420/21 "2012-03-02T00:34:41Z")

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Where are people in the underground economy counted? Your Old Dope Peddler is likely not spending time in the unemployment office, but is also not really unemployed.

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**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-refute-this-statement/614420/22 "2012-03-02T00:46:17Z")

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> [@JThunder](#):
>
> I distinctly recall people saying the same thing under Bush, so this is neither new nor Obama-specific.

Agreed. And when the economy recovers and unemployment gets back to 5% under Obama, Romney, or whomever, the naysayers will complain that these numbers are made up because they are mostly “hamburger-flipping” jobs. (That was said of Clinton and Reagan).

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**Author:** ![Christopher\_Robin\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8dc957/32.png) [@Christopher\_Robin\_Davies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Christopher_Robin_Davies)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-refute-this-statement/614420/23 "2012-03-02T20:32:35Z")

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NM

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**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\
**Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-refute-this-statement/614420/24 "2012-03-02T21:07:27Z")

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> [@Voyager](#):
>
> Where are people in the underground economy counted? Your Old Dope Peddler is likely not spending time in the unemployment office, but is also not really unemployed.

Since he’s not actively seeking work, he wouldn’t be counted as unemployed in the official unemployment rate. Depending on how you define “real” unemployment rate he may or may not be included.

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**Author:** ![pinqy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a3d4f5/32.png) [@pinqy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinqy)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-be-the-best-way-to-refute-this-statement/614420/25 "2012-03-05T13:34:14Z")

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> [@Voyager](#):
>
> Where are people in the underground economy counted? Your Old Dope Peddler is likely not spending time in the unemployment office, but is also not really unemployed.

The UE rate comes from a household survey. So if a drug dealer is asked if he worked for pay or was self-employed etc, he would be counted as Employed if he says yes (by law, any info is confidential and cannot be reported to any other agency except Census, BLS and BEA). If he says no work/income and not looking, he’s Not in the Labor Force.

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