there was tv factoid the past couple days claiming that for the first
time in living history that the avg. standard of living in great britain
is higher than the avg. standard of living in the states.

UK standard of living rises above that in America for the first time in a century
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=506442&in_page_id...

for other topic drift ... "standard of living" related posts starting
with some posts referencing significant economic cost of illegal aliens
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#18 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#70 illegal aliens
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#79 John W. Backus, 82, Fortran developer, dies
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007i.html#81 illegal aliens
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007o.html#22 U.S. Cedes Top Spot in Global IT Competitiveness
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007q.html#61 Horrid thought about Politics, President Bush, and Democrats
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2007t.html#46 Newsweek article--baby boomers and computers

above includes references to gao studies that illegal aliens typically
provide economic value (only) a little over half their cost to society
(i.e. society has to spend much more on illegal aliens than their direct
economic contribution).