By the end of the 1500s, French aristocrats had exempted themselves from property taxes. As a result the nobles, especially the “new nobles”, began buying more farms and vineyards. The nation’s expenditures and taxes remained the same. Those not exempt from taxes, everyone but nobles and the clergy, saw their taxes go up at increasingly rapid rates.
Each time a noble purchased, or an ecclesiastical community inherited, more property, the unfairness increased. The nobles spent a lot of time in and around the Court, were able to exert enough influence to keep themselves exempt. The clergy, equally organized, were able to do the same thing. Bribes flowed like water, undermining the moral credibility of the regime.
Peasants, craftsmen, merchants, and small businessmen were, as always, disorganized. The growing burden of taxation impoverished them. When the inevitable shortages raised the prices of food and clothing, they were hit with a double whammy, and didn’t like it. A stronger, central military force came into being, making protests against the unfair taxation certain to fail.
Despite that, sporadic, localized protests broke out. Manor houses and tax rolls were burned. Such outbursts were often followed by some amelioration, but the root cause, unfair taxation, remained. It was finally washed away, by an outpouring of blood, in 1789.
Those who caused and profited from the unfair taxation system had their descendants slaughtered all over France.
Today, taxation is becoming more unfair. Tax exempt foundations, institutions, and government entities pay their people extremely high salaries, but avoid property taxes. Even the lower-lever government employees find that, over their lives, incomes, benefits, pensions, and steady work provide them twice what today’s private-sector peasants are paid.
This unfairness has prompted many to affiliate with “pro-fairness” groups, like the Tea Parties. If their demands for fairness are heeded, future damage will be avoided. But, like the nobles of France four hundred years ago, most who profit from their neighbors by taking ever-larger percentages of their income are institutionalizing our unfair treatment. That ensures big problems down the road.
When the unfairness reaches high levels, the guillotines and gulags go into operation.
