... this is hardly surprising. How much money can one make studying Torah for a living? I believe Israel is much better than the UN gives credit for. The UN is clueless! The standards which the UN judges Israel are beneath contempt. I'm hesitant to accept this report.

Really that would be the obvious answer here don't cha think? After all we all know that Bibi and Yair have gone very far in order to create an amazing economic model and that the real problem is the antisemitism expressed by international organization such as OECD. Or is it that because there is a real problem all of you especially the very disgusting TBer at 23 have chosen to blame the poor themselves.

A rich country!...just netanyahu barak olmert Peres simonapparently are less rich because they are in the forbes israeli list

I also saw the boom. This is an extremely wealthy nation. I've also been in MANY Arab homes in the villages. Believe me, those homes are luxurious, they live better than we do, in our tiny flats. The Israeli Arabs work hard and know how to earn a living. I've worked with many all my life here. They are no lazy people. I think the article is just another Israel-bash.

are appalling. Please people, get an education.

May be coz we are spending too much on our politicians..... like a 0.5m shekel bedroom on a plane for 5hr sleep for bibi...and home running costs soaring way out of line for the same person....not to mention his ice cream bill. Is that a good example to set ?

Despite all those handouts from US and Germny ,...

We let civil servants who are supposed to protect the workers from owners and management that steal our wages get away with not doing their jobs. For years we hear how bad the elected government is. But it is the public that refuses to demonstrate against the civil service.That refuses to demand prison sentences and fines for the owners and management of companies that do not pay their workers according to the law. Also the knesset is to blame for not passing laws with teeth. They work with the contractors and others against the public. No one will help us and we will continue to suffer from the slavery of debt.

According to the logic of the headline the Czech Republic isvthe richest country in the OECD, and we shpuld expect Australians and Canadians to flock to Estonia and Poland to escape poverty. The OECD measure counts the percentage of people who EARN (irrespective of social and helth care benevits) less than the median in the respective country. Even by those criteria the 'poorest' in Israel earn more than the 'richest' in Poland and the Czech Republic (where poverty is lowest according to the OECD). And the data are 2-3 years old. In fact, the inequality index has improved in Israel during the last 3-5 years (Herzliya conference 2013)

"richest" lot on the face of this earth.It is becoming hareder by the day to trust any of the information various bodies supply us with and that goes for our governments as well.

Israel's housing problem is a result of ghetto culture. 90% of the Jewish population chose to live on the coast and central region. The bulk of the arabs live in the Galilee. Then you have the settlers who think that Judea & Samaria is the only land there is. When everybody wants to live in the sae place then land comes at a premium and those costs get passed onto the property owners who pay very high prices and the investors who buy to rent they are having to pay a high price for the land they have to charge high rents. If more of the jewish population wanted to live in other parts of the country the demand in the coastal and central regions wouldn't be as high and prices would come down nationwide. Most the countries economic problems are cultural not government spending.

Move over North Korea- here comes Israel; we have poverty, the bomb and a despot that likes to sleep through it all at 35,000 feet.

Israel is a country under constant threat & attack while most of the OECD countries can afford to (more than justified) pass critic on Israel. When the other OECD countries will be in Israel's position, than they can be compared. Do things have to improve in Israel? Of course.

are filthy rich, the rest of us hard working Jews have to suffer...

27. exclude the haredim ??? says Evan of Livingston, NJ ! I rather exclude Evans from NJ