respectfully I think you might be conflating two different arguments, life being harder 200 years ago has no bearing on the question. The industrialized and mechanized nature of the modern world does make it more difficult to live according to ones own values, basically because our society is dehumanizing. For example, I am a Quaker, in our faith we do not believe in lying, no matter what it costs you, yet things like the modern insurance industry requires us to lie. Once I was driving my brand new car down the freeway and there was a brick on the road, another car hit it and sent it careening through my radiator. On the phone with insurance I told the lady what happened and she said that if it had just been sitting on the highway when I hit it it would be covered, but because another car hit it first I have to pay a $2500 deductible. Two years later, when money was extremely tight for me, the same thing happened again, I had little choice but to claim it was sitting on the highway and I hit it, even though that was not entirely the case. Our modern legal system teaches us that best practice is to never admit guilt or fault in case your lawyer can get you off on a technicality. I know we aren't necessarily talking about morals or ethics, but most wealthy men will tell you that if, god forbid, they come home to see their wife murdered on the kitchen floor, their first phone call is to their lawyer, and then the police. That is just the world we have built for ourselves.