Ireland is Now Richer Than the US

I knew this day would come. The day Ireland would surpass the US in income per capita. Even though Ireland has a higher overall tax rate than the US as a percent of GDP (35% vs. 29%), its low corporate taxes would inevitably carry it through (12.5% vs. 40%).

However, I did notice that Norway was higher than the US as well, which enters us into whether or not we're comparing apples to apples on this very important statistics. The data comes from the CIA's World Factbook which claims it adjusts for PPP. But I've seen differing figures before from the World Bank, the OECD, the CIA, none of them seem to reconcile.

Whichever the case, the trend is the most important thing. And no more than 5 years ago it was very clear that Ireland was below the US in terms of standards of living. Now it seems they're neck and neck at the Galway races.