Unedited Copilot: Let's Talk French Revolution

I've been reading the Memoirs of St Simone.

It's a lusciously gossipy account of the Court of France from 1792 to, I don't know to where; I have another hundred pages to read.

St Simone never said much without nuance, hidden digs, sardonic laughter - hidden of course - and the heart of a storyteller.

I finally decided that some of the things Saint‑Simon kept mentioning - the Mississippi Company, the tax farms, and John Law (who created a national bank, introduced paper money, and turned France’s debt into dividend‑paying shares backed by the supposed riches of Louisiana) - needed to be explained to me.

So, I went to my friend the explainer and quickly got off subject, but not really, and deeper than I have ever been into the mechanics of the French Revolution.

There is a lot more; I am picking a random snippet that is pretty interesting

*****

When you combine:

• downward‑shifting tax burdens
• upward‑shifting wealth concentration
• credit‑driven economic stability
• political patronage for elites
• institutional paralysis
• declining trust in government
• rising resentment among the propertied middle

…you get the same psychological brew that fermented in France:

• “We pay for a system that no longer works for us.”
• That sentiment is not partisan.
• It’s structural.
• And it’s exactly the class that drives political upheaval.

The American version is slower, more diffuse, and less explosive because the U.S. has:

• a larger economy
• a more flexible political system
• a more dynamic private sector
• a more adaptive monetary regime
• a culture of reinvention

So the pressure vents differently:

• polarization
• populist movements
• institutional distrust
• political volatility
• cultural fragmentation

Not a Bastille.

Yet.

But the same underlying mechanics.