It was George Santayana who first said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Students of history often marvel at the accuracy of that statement. Only time will tell if it’s relevant to our own times, but the historical track record suggests that it is.
Prior to the French Revolution, the French people were roughly divided into three different categories, called Estates. The First Estate consisted of the clergy. The Catholic Church was the largest landowner in France, it’s been estimated that they owned 10% of all the land. The wealth and power of the church was
strongly resented by some of the people. The Second Estate consisted of the nobility. While all members of the nobility weren’t wealthy, most of the wealthy people in France were members of the nobility. The Third Estate was the great catchall, all of the other people, basically the peasants and the working class.Corruption in government was at epidemic proportions. Ministers and others were often mere toadies to those above them. The good of the country was largely immaterial to those self-serving sycophants; self-aggrandizement was the order of the day.
The government’s finances were both antiquated and inefficient. In many ways France was still a feudalistic country at the time. Different regions had different taxes and tariffs were often placed on commerce in route from one region to another even though it remained inside the borders of France. Laws and justice varied from one region to another.
The government was saddled with an extremely heavy debt prior to the revolution. There were many reasons for the debt, one of the major reasons being the cost of several wars in the not too distant past; including the support France gave to the fledging United States in its revolution against Great Britain less than a decade earlier.
France had an extremely regressive tax system at the time. The Third Estate was heavily taxed while the First and Second Estates enjoyed numerous tax exemptions. Jacques Necker became the de facto finance minister in 1776. He was opposed to further taxes on the Third Estate and he wanted to reduce the tax exemptions enjoyed by the First and Second Estates. Ministers to King Louis XVI,
and even the Queen, Marie Antoinette, became Necker’s enemies because of his policies.The colder climate caused by the “Little Ice Age” and failed agricultural policies inside of France led to shortfalls in the harvest which caused food prices to rise. This in turn led to malnutrition and starvation by some members of the Third Estate.
Those were the direct causes of the French Revolution. On Jan. 21, 1793, Citizen Louis Capet, previously known as King Louis XVI, was beheaded by the guillotine. On Oct. 16, 1793, Marie Antoinette met her death the same way.
Compare this bloody period in history to our current times, especially in the U.S.
• Is corruption in government epidemic?
• Are politicians largely a bunch of self-serving sycophants with self-aggrandizement being the order of the day?
• Are the government’s finances inefficient?
• Is the government saddled with a huge debt, largely because of wars?
• Do we have a regressive tax system, and do privileged classes enjoy numerous tax exemptions?
• Does anyone trying to “promote the general Welfare,” as it’s expressed in the preamble to the Constitution, become the enemy of mainstream politicians?
• Are food prices on the rise?
When you hear people talk about the sins of income redistribution think about the top 1% getting richer while everyone else becomes poorer. When people talk about the unfairness of punishing those who create jobs with higher taxes are they setting the bar artificially low in order to favor the wealthiest? Is that very argument meant to be a distraction to the fact that those at the top of the financial pyramid are becoming filthy rich at the expense of everyone else? Do politicians stop and consider the consequences of their partisan politics by putting them into a historical context?
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Déjà vu.