I had a good laugh when I read this:

The Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group in the University of Sheffield¿s Geography Department and a research team at the University of Michigan have produced a "World Wealth Map 2015", a collection of maps resizing territories according to their economic power. The map projects Korea as the world's sixth largest in terms of per-capita GDP in purchasing power parity with US$38,249, surging ahead of the U.S. in seventh with $38,063 and Japan in ninth with $35,694. The two teams took into account data from nine organizations including the World Bank, the CIA and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in creating the map.

Great that means that Korea should be able to afford their own national defense. I need to carry a copy of this article around and pull it out every time I hear someone from Korea complain they are still a developing nation or the economy is so bad. Or better yet, can't afford to rebuild North Korea, thus reunification needs to be put off at all costs. Looking at this map I can help but think it is easy to have inflated purchasing power when you don't have to be the world's policemen to ensure global stability for the same countries making money on this list.



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