Firstly, the 'standard' of living goes up incrementally anyway. Go back 100 years most people had no holidays, no luxuries and probably shared a tin bath and did their ablutions in an outside toilet block. So it's not really a comparable argument to say that 'before thatcher' the standards of living were lower, that's a historical / cultural effect.
Secondly I remember Leyland. They didn't make particularly crap cars (by the standards of the day), but cheaper labour costs from the far east drove down their competitiveness. There's an argument in there about living wages, for both the Leyland workers and those from expanding economies who now dominate the manufacturing sector (Bangladeshi garment workers, being a topical issue) Leyland workers lost their jobs and Bangladeshi workers pay with their lives - and yet private business ensures that it protects it's modus operandi - Profit.
