Well, then what did the New York Times mean?
I wouldn't dare claim to know that, but what it said below its headline ("United States is the richest country in the world") appeared to be merely that U.S. wealth per capita had increased the fastest in the previous year. Yet, if you read the report the article was based on, it actually did claim that by one measure (net financial assets per capita) the U.S. was at the top, while by another (gross financial assets per capita) Switzerland was at the top. But there are a couple of problems with this:
1) They only looked at 57 country, and the world has over 200.
2) Even if we're accepting for the sake of argument here that money is equivalent with wealth, that doesn't make "financial assets" equivalent with wealth. Financial assets means stocks and investments.
Of course the New York Times' measuring of per capita wealth using a form of wealth that 10% of the people in the United States own about 90% of highlights the inequality problem. But at least the New York Times is trying to measure wealth per capita, as it should, as everyone should.
The next time you hear that "the richest country in the world" has done some horrible thing, you should reply that you'll be sure to contact Luxembourg and offer to help out.
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