Let me just quote a little from the first two pages of Chapter 3 (typed in with my own bleeding fingers, I'll have you know).
The monarchy that Louis XVI embodied at the opening session of the Estates was still a grand if somewhat dilapidated edifice...Can we talk about the expiration of the Bush tax cuts for the millionaires now?
Below the king and the royal family, French society, like that of all continental old regimes, was divided into a hierarchy of orders, known as estates. Each one was legally defined, and had its own rights and duties. The clergy ranked as the first estate... they were not taxed directly, but instead voted a don gratuit, or "free gift," to the crown at their five-yearly assemblies.
The nobility, too, the second estate, were subjects of the king... True, the nobility were exempt from the main direct tax, the taille, but from 1695 onwards, they had been subjected, along with everyone else, to a succession of income-based contributions...
Below the clergy and nobility stretched the third estate, composed of all lay commoners... the bulk of its members comprised the urban working class and, above all, the peasantry, who made up fully 80% of the French population. Socially, politically and economically, it was the third estate that paid the price of the unspoken bargain between the monarchy and the privileged orders. Its members bore the brunt of taxation...
Only if you're against them. I can't afford to eat cake.
ReplyDeleteExcellent historical perspective, Bill. And that sounds like a book I need to read.
ReplyDeleteIt's been the strangest 24 hours. Last night was all hoo-ha about the vote; today was all ho-hum, we Democrats expected this, just needed it on the record, now maybe we can negotiate.
It takes all I've got to hang in there with the sturm and drang. I'm beginning to think of it as a Punch and Judy show: at the end of the day, the puppets are all packed away and consigned to a dark box somewhere, while the real people count the day's take.
I grew up believing I was privileged. Then, I found out we weren't, after all. Then I got educated, went to work, got married, made money, and thought I was privileged. Then, I found out we weren't. With the demise of the middle class, we are undeniably third class citizens now.
Politics is and always has been about negotiations. Lines drawn in the sand are just to test the waters. Both sides know that ultimately you give some to get some. It appears that the trade off is going to be the tax cuts for the wealthy for the extension of the unemployment benefits.
ReplyDeleteI keep hearing how Obama and the Democrats should stand firm and declare no tax cuts for the wealthy. What then? The Republican Senators aren't going to cave on the extension of unemployment benefits. They will deny culpability, spinning it to be Obama's fault for being unwilling to compromise on the tax cuts and the public will buy it. I feel like a broken record, but the office of the president has no authority to force Congress to do anything. He influences Congress but he doesn't command Congress.
Congress is answerable only to us and we seldom get off our collective asses to do anything to let Congress know that we will not accept their behavior.
Of course Obama can veto the bill that comes to his desk if it contains an extension of tax cuts for the wealthy. Congress has the authority to override that veto but it's unlikely that both chambers would get the votes required to do so. However, it would be an incomplete victory. Any bill that the Republicans sign on to will also include the tax cuts for the middle class as well; veto the bill and taxes for the middle class also increase allowing the Republicans to again blame Obama for failing to keep his campaign promise to not allow an increase in taxes for the middle class.
I wouldn't want to be in Obama's shoes; no matter what he does he will be condemned by the right and the left.
Nance, I love you dearly, but neither yhou nor I are third class citizens. We have long had a third class in this country--people who live in daily poverty. I don't mean the unemployed or homeless, I mean the working class poor, those folks who bag our groceries and greet us at Walmart. We don't enjoy the same peace of mind financially as we have become accustomed to but I know that I am privileged compared to many of my fellow Americans. Perhaps I can't afford steak but I can still buy hamburger.
I'm definitely third class being that I'm an old, handicapped single woman who spent most of her life as a homemaker (read: poor), but sometimes I treat myself to a steak and pretend that I have value. And I'm ornery enough that I'm going to keep raging against the machine as long as I can.
ReplyDeleteMy dear Kay, we all have value. Money makes living in this costly world easier but it doesn't measure one's worth. I hope that nothing that I wrote suggested that being without money means lacking in value. If I did, I fully and sincerely apologize for my thoughtlessness.
ReplyDeleteI agree and I didn't think you were saying anything like that. All good people have worth and I'm more likely to see Winston Mandela than Bernie Madoff as a 'classy' guy.
ReplyDeleteProgressive taxation, and I don't give a damn if it's called socialism, or Communism or "spreading the wealth around" by dishonest media tools, is an important check against the decay of freedom and democracy and economic opportunity.
NC,
ReplyDeleteBien dit. And even Louis XVI had the good sense to say, "Let's not lose our heads over this!" Except that he apparently didn't have the good sense to say that. If the Obama Admin has a bit of skill, they should be able to make the Republicans look like the feckless pseudo-aristocrats they really are. At least the French had the real thing ripping them off ever so elegantly. How would our plutocrats look in lace and perruques? Pretty foolish, I'd say....
Sheria,
Well, everyone but dinosaurs has value. The worst a Tea-Partyist could suffer for braining me with a rock or blowing me away with an elephant gun would probably be a couple hundred dollars in fines and a few hours of socialist community service. It's a dangerous world out there, I tells ya!
But Dino, you are a member of a rare breed. You should be the poster child for the endangered species list.
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