French Queen Marie Antoinette, when told that her people were starving, asked why they didn’t just eat bread. When told they had no bread, she allegedly replied,“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”
English translation: “Let them eat cake.” More literally,brioche,a delicious luxury bread made with lots of eggs and butter.
While Britannica saysit’s unlikelythat Marie Antoinette actually ever said that phrase, it has come to symbolize the kind of ignorant, dismissive attitude you sometimes see in out-of-touch leadership. I suspect it was more of a naïve misunderstanding, that the queen simply couldn’t imaginescarcity.
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The monarchy had borrowed heavily to fund war spending (and continued borrowing after the war was over). Higher taxes and inflation made everyday survival difficult for workers, then two bad harvests sent unemployment and food prices soaring.
Queen Marie was best known forspectacularlyextravagant spending. The lifestyle of the royal court at Versailles, where elaborate 16-course meals ended with spectacular towers of dessert, couldn’t be more different than the typical family.
And of course, the Queen’s words became propaganda for revolutionaries who went on to topple the monarchy and execute both King Louis XIV and Queen Marie.
It’s a fascinating story, and it immediately came to mind earlier this week.
In a conversation onCBS Newsabout higher energy prices, Chevron executiveAndy Walz had a suggestion: “People should drive less.”
To be fair, Walz knows this isn’t a solution. He admitted there’s no “silver bullet” to bring down prices over the long-term. So he might as well have said, “Get used to it.”
Source: SGT Report
