WHICH IS BETTER

I wonder if it would be better to live centuries ago, and have armed men on horseback visit from time to time to measure the dimensions of my property and extract taxes and send my sons to war, and live a life of toil and physical hardship, and be at constant risk of dysentery, than to live today, and be monitored at all times and everywhere by a mammoth state and her multinational private handmaidens, and have a cappuccino and a laptop computer, and be healthy.