Biggest Ever in History

We hear a lot of headlines and news comments about stuff being the largest ever in our history.

• We have the largest budget in history!
• We are collecting more taxes than ever in our history!
• We are spending the most money we have ever spent!
• And many more.....
  

My question is unless we start a plague and wipe out half of our population, why should we not have the largest ever? After all we have -

• More students to educate than ever in history
  
• Higher standard of living than ever in history
  
• Opportunity for better diets than ever in history
• Opportunity for better health care than ever
• And many more.....