How Good WERE the Good Old Days?

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This is a post I meant to write about 3 weeks ago, but then Real Life intervened and I never got round to it! In an article in my usual newspaper, the "i", I read that so-called Victorian diseases are making a come-back in London. According to NHS statistics, 7366 people have been admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of malnutrition between August 2014 and July 2015, compared with 4883 cases August 2010 to July 2011 - an increase of 50%. Cases of scurvy, whooping cough, scarlet fever and cholera have also increased. This has been put down, to a great extent, to families just not being able to afford nutritious food. This is not going to be a political post, although many ex-Bubblers know my political views. It is just going to put a question to those who regret the "good old days". All the diseases I have mentioned were rife in Victorian London. These were also the times of the Poor Laws, when families who ran into debt were put into workhouses, suffering terrible deprivations. Compulsory education for children was beginning, but not yet universal, and many kids were working long hours. Child prostitution was also rife. The gap between the haves and the have-nots was alarming. Unfortunately, it is growing again at the moment - but, as I've said, this is not going to be a political post. So far, I've spoken about the Victorian times, which (believe it or not!) I don't remember. However, I do remember back to the early 1950s, and things weren't really so hot then, either! This is all rather naive and vague, as I haven't had time to research adequately because I wanted to write today. (This newspaper's been mouldering in my study for too long!) But the question is in the title: Were the Good Old Days really so good?