What exactly do we have better? More toys? Maybe Morrowind doesn't get 300+ cable channels. But their lower class is free of hunger and disease and their upper class is effectively immortal and sometimes ascends to godhood. I'm sure both Hugh Heffner and Bill Gates would be thrilled to be in as good physical condition as Divayth Fyr when they reach 4000.
The lower class isn't free from hunger, and their are two upper classes: elven mages and the rest of the upper class. Humans are still as mortal as us.
Besides that, think of how many bandits there are in Tamriel. What social conditions would cause that? What would possibly be able to cause more than half of Tamriel's population to take up banditry? Morrowind still has slavery as a commonly accepted thing. The poor live in one-room shacks. The average level of education is terrible. Daedra, vampires, and other things that go bump in the night regularly prey on people.
In addition, think of the absurd disparity in wealth between social classes. Most commoners have less than ten septims of pocket change. Divayth wears a full suit of daedric armor. Some reclusive noble in Vivec can afford to give away daedric weapons for information. The rich are usually people with vast arcane powers or slaves, and the lower classes are left with basically nothing.
I'd argue our standard of living is significantly higher.
Also, I only suggested we ask Yagrum about what made him interrupt Uupse because I know it'd tick him off. I vote we
ask him about what he knows about the Nerevarine, and... crap, I forgot why we came down here aside from getting our phone appraised.