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Discussion Membership
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The Sun King's stimulus
Flush with success in passing his economic bill in the House of Representatives, Barack Obama postures a parallel to FDR during the depression. More striking is Obama's parallel to France's Louis XIV (1638-1715). Louis was called the Sun King, because, just as the planets revolved around the sun, the country and the court should revolve around him. Louis came to power very young, manipulated by old hands behind the scenes. He exploited public yearnings for peace and order to work to increase the power of the state. Increasing control, Louis forced many nobles and courtiers to live near him in his lavish capitol where he dispensed large sums to finance his royal court. The congress of his time rubberstamped his will. Louis maintained their allegiance by doling out grants and subsidies to his favorites and supporting the writings of those who supported him. Louis effectively bankrupted the national treasury, forcing him to levy higher taxes on the peasants -- many nobility being exempt. Through his finance minister, Colbert, he introduced more efficient taxation, increased customs duties, and taxed more goods and property. A mercantilist who believed in government, not entrepreneurship, Louis gave special treatment to select industries to decrease dependence on foreign goods. Lobbying and palace intrigue became the primary means to special favors. Louis XIV left his country in serious financial difficulties, which the timid, indecisive Louis XV (1710-1774) failed to overcome. Louis XV's one bright light was his doctor, Francois Quesnay, who was one of the first to try to analyze economic behavior. In 1776, Adam Smith, well-traveled and well-received in France, wrote that Quesnay's understanding of economic relationships was, next to writing and money, among the greatest inventions to stabilize political society. Quesnay studied the source of wealth and its distribution among economic classes and believed the practical economist and the statesman should work to increase the nation's net product. In the media-glitzed, post-history world of today, voters have forgotten Louis XIV, Quesnay, and Adam Smith's warning to distrust every special interest including big government. In the name of the people, the powerful play politics to preserve their authority at the expense of future generations. Their excessive, misdirected borrowing from our children's wallets will hit rich and poor alike and take years to recover. Like a slow motion automobile crash, the mistakes of Louis XIV are about to be repeated before our eyes. Such is the new Sun King's "stimulus" we are about to receive. [Macro error: Can’t call the script because the name “commentIt” hasn’t been defined.] [Macro error: Can’t call the script because the name “commentIt” hasn’t been defined.]
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