An American “French Revolution”

Posted on October 19, 2009
Filed Under General |

My family for many generations has tried to teach to our children the “value of money” as one of our core values. Not unlike a great many other American families, we have tried to instill how important it was to manage your money, get a good job, control your expenses, invest in homes and property and so on. The time has now come to beg the question, what happens to you when you have spent your entire life working hard and living frugally and your money suddenly is of no value and you have lost everything? The answer is, you become angry and revolt against the system that has shown it as an enemy of your basic values.

This day of revolt is upon us. As I sit and watch what has been happening for the last few months in the world of economics and finance. I see unemployment rising, gold prices rising, the value of the dollar falling and more and more people having to turn to the state for financial support just to eat. Though our elected representatives mouth a lot of pretty words that “they care about the plight of the common man,” in reality, they do nothing but make the problems worse. It has been one year now since the housing market meltdown in October of 2008. I would like someone to show me one piece of legislation that has even been introduced for consideration that puts the regulations back on Wall Street and the Banks to control this insidiously stupid financial system we have that caused the 2008 crash! Meanwhile, the jobs and net worth of the common man in the US continues to disappear at an alarming rate. This lack of support from our government can only lead to revolution.

Now revolution is a scary prospect and there are really only two types: You can have a quiet, peaceful revolution where people with courage step up and make the real changes that fix problems. Or you can have a violent revolution as the French did in under similar circumstances to our own back in 1789. Today, most Americans I think want the former type of revolution where life can continue and our prosperity can grow if even in a somewhat disjointed fashion after the 2008 disaster. Unfortunately, if we suffer another major economic disruption or financial crash, we are likely to end up with the violent, French type of revolution. For many Americans, things are getting desperate and when you cannot even feed your children because of the stupidity of our elected government in Washington, dramatic revolutionary change will likely result.

The French revolution was a miserable business. This is when the French introduced the Guillotine as a means of execution; and execute people they did, in great numbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine

Many of you may remember what happened during the French revolution from your High School history classes. You probably remember discussions on the “Storming of the Bastille”, the “Reign of Terror”, the execution of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette in 1793. (http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/lecture13a.html) It is estimated 40,000 people were killed by Guillotine (http://www.scarletpimpernel.com/madame.html) during the revolution with possibly another 300,000 killed by other means. Many were simply killed because a rival would bring a false accusation of anti-revolutionary talk simply to get that person murdered. Many were executed without trials.

Consider this from Wikipedia about the causes of the French Revolution: “Economic factors included widespread famine and malnutrition, which increased the likelihood of disease and death, and intentional starvation in the most destitute segments of the population in the months immediately before the Revolution. Another cause was the fact that Louis XV fought many wars, bringing France to the verge of bankruptcy, and Louis XVI supported the colonists during the American Revolution, exacerbating the precarious financial condition of the government. The national debt amounted to almost two billion livres. The social burdens caused by war included the huge war debt made worse by the monarchy’s military failures. The inefficient and antiquated financial system was unable to manage the national debt, something that was both caused and exacerbated by the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation. Another cause was the continued conspicuous consumption of the noble class, especially the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, despite the financial burden on the populace. High unemployment and high bread prices caused more money to be spent on food and less in other areas of the economy.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution)

That sounds like the American government today, doesn’t it? I am greatly fearful that it will lead to the same conclusions today as it did in France resulting in a similar action as their revolution. All it will take in today’s America is some catastrophic event. The sad news is, I see one such event coming, the demise of the US dollar. There have been many financial pundits that have forecast a second US economic crash for the end of October 2009. If the dollar continues to plunge as it has, they may well be right. Ask yourself this, what will you do when there is 40% real unemployment, bread is at $5 per loaf and milk is at $10 per gallon? Gasoline could easily hit the $8-$10 range as well. Get ready my friend, this will likely be our situation in the next six months, starting with a dollar plunge then a derivatives crash here at the end of this month of October. I pray we do not fall into the same trap as the French did in their revolution when it went violent. In the end, in 1799, the revolution concluded with the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte coming to power. That could easily be the end result of our US republic as well should we opt for a violent Second American Revolution.

Clayton

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