America also leaves out large numbers of people who could quite reasonably be counted in.
> > that hardly seems possible.
Why not? Do you doubt the power of a culture to control its reactions to its economy? Do you think all nations must react the way Western nations do? Pick up and read Business Week sometime. They complain often about the way Japanese companies refuse to get serious about cost cutting - which is a Western euphemism for firing lots of people.
Every nation has a social contract that needs to be obeyed if economic growth is to occur. In America that contract is highly libertarian, seemingly with popular consent. The contract is very different in Japan. The contract there is, or at least was, one where surplus labor was given tasks, any tasks, even useless busy work, but always something.
If Japan undertook a campaign of radical restructuring then unemployment might rise to the level that one would expect if a Western nation was to spend 10 years in recession.
>> The "informality" of the networks allows the
> > official labor force to claim credit for productivity increases that may
> > have a lot to do with uncounted work.