standard of living in the usa is sinking ...., page-17

Skol, I am no goldbug, people 'scrambling' to get to the US are generally from the third world. I'm not Australian either.

I've had plenty of friends from the UK, Australia, Germany and elsewhere work as academics in the US or on secondment in the financial industry, they all had a great time. I have travelled extensively around the US (I'd wager I've seen more of it than you) and loved it. However I would never want to live there, none of my friends still do. The hedonism and scale of the place is fantastic and fun, but it isn't a place to raise the kids unless you're a millionaire, and heaven forbid you or they are unfortunate enough to develop a serious chronic illness...

Superficially it would seem that a three year difference in life expectancy isn't that much, but each 0.1 of a year is extremely hard won and usually represents a far greater gain in median quality of life and 'years of healthy life'. You forget to mention that the US is 38th in the table for life expectancy, below almost every other western country.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_lif_exp_hea_yea-health-life-expectancy-healthy-years