6. Marie Antoinette Was Unfairly Accused of Creating the Tremendous National Debt
Marie Antoinette’s memory is sullied by the accusation that she was the cause of France’s ballooning national debt. In fact, that is one of the charges that was brought against her and that she, under coercion, pled guilty.
The queen did like the more delicate things in life and threw extravagant parties. However, France’s economy was in trouble long before she joined the royal court. King Louis XVI promoted involvement in the American Revolution, which to this end it was, in effect, a proxy war between France and its historical rival, Great Britain; the decision drained the national treasury. The weak king, who was disinterested in politics and the working of the state, and who also was unaware of the social foment and dissent that was brewing against him, decided to raise taxes as a means of funding France’s involvement. The result was a higher cost of grain, combined with less money for the poor of France to buy the bread that formed the bulk majority of their diets.
In this time of extreme discontent and looming starvation for the average Frenchman, Marie Antoinette’s expensive clothes, outrageous hairstyles, and lavish parties looked like a slap in the face. It was, in fact, during this time that she supposedly said, “Let them eat cake!” However, when you look at the mathematics of the French economy at the time, Marie Antoinette’s excesses contributed little to the spiraling national debt. That said, they certainly didn’t help.
Likewise, Hillary Clinton has often been criticized for her alleged role in the increasing national debt, though the accusation is undoubtedly false. Obamacare, which she adamantly supported, did little to raise the national debt. The wars in the Middle East, which continued while she served as Secretary of State and indeed had taxed the American economy, had begun under her Republican predecessor, George W. Bush. Furthermore, they were a continuation of policies that can be traced to two other Republican presidents: George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, under whom the national debt increased from 26% to 40% of GDP. Hillary Clinton’s support of the wars translates to indirectly growing the national debt.