I tried to ship the dominator wheels over here. They cost $60 all in (inserts etc) Then the shipping would have been an extra $85 !!!!!!

As for standards of living I'm not sure. Up till afew months ago I was a telephone engineer with British Telecom - you know, climbing utilty poles, installing/maintaining lines etc and I got paid £18,500 a year. So what does an AT & T guy get paid?
On top of that, the average house price over here is now £125,000 for a basic 3 bedroom house. Oh yeah, and fuel is £3.60 a gallon. (Yes you read that right)