richest countries

Somebody recently told me that Ireland was the richest country in the world. Somewhat confounded I took this on trust, only having lived there for over 20 years and not seen any indication of it (poor infrastructure, 3rd world funding of education, awful quality of new housing, one of the highest levels of adult illiteracy in the developed world, vast tracts of poverty, no opera most of the year, lousy arts funding, etc.). Eventually I decided to check the statistics and it appears that Ireland is nowhere near the top, not even in Europe, if GDP per capita is the measure, which I assume it ought to be. By this measurement Ireland comes 8^th in Europe and is nowhere in sight in the world’s top 20, which has Luxemburg on top, followed by Norway, USA, San Marino, and Switzerland. That’s more like it.

It had occurred to me that Ireland might at least have one claim to fame, that of being numbered among the most expensive countries to live in, which is the impression you get when you live there, but again I was wrong. Ireland doesn’t figure in the top 20. Japan tops the list with the USA 13^th and UK 16^th. So there. What is Ireland good at? Stupid pubs in foreign lands? The most clever marketing of a nationality in the history of marketing?