How to keep Singaporeans rich and happy. Or is it just a pi in the sky?

Hmm, insing.com pulled a fast one. That list of "47 things you didn't know about Singapore" was only a list of 46! The last pic -- of an aquarium with tropical fish -- had no caption. So, my nomination for No 48 is now No 47, ie, What you didn't know about the disgusting habits of the Singaporean supermarket shopper (I'll subsume the stuff from the blog I highlighted under my No 47).

So, what would be a suitable No 48? It's in today's ST...

You can also read a similar story online, from insing.com:

http://news.insing.com/tabloid/singapore-richest-important-rich/id-0d5c3f00

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Now, let me get my maths right. If Singapore is now No 1 richest country on a per capita basis (2010, US$56,532) and is expected (but not certain?) to stay at No 1 in 2050 (US$137,710), there's a pau buay soo/pau eeya (sure won't lose/sure will win) way to prevent any other upstart country/territory from upstaging us all the way to 2050.

1. The above calculation is based on the country's economic output divided by the population ie, GDP per capita.
2. Now hold total economic output constant, everything else being equal (ceteris paribus, as the academics will say).
3. Forget about pressuring Singaporeans to have more babies/plus no need to have more foreign talent/workers...
4. Voila, everyone's happy! The government, since now the GDP per capita will go up, given that the denominator (total population) will get smaller and smaller, with attrition; the harried married couples who now won't have to listen to "National Night" every night (see my pertinent earlier blog entry); and the anti-FT crowd who will find the buses and trains getting less and less crowded.

QED.

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Finally, here's another interesting statistic...

US population reaches pi milestone, officials say

The US population reached a number dear to mathematicians on Tuesday: 314,159,265 or pi times 100 million.

http://news.xin.msn.com/en/weird/us-population-reaches-pi-milestone-officials-say

It reminded me of this frame from one of my favourite cartoon strips: