The Sun King. He you lived in crazy luxury!
But did he live as luxuriously as we do? I think NOT!
Before we start a big THANKS to all who support us on Patreon and make these videos possible!
Please subscribe to us on Patreon, too!
[chomp sound]
It would probably not be hard for me to convince you that you live better
than the common folks did under Louis XIV, the famous Sun King.
But i want to show you that you live better than the richest King in the world's richest city of its time,
arguably one of the richest guys in history, who lived in a pompous palace
and who had 498 full-time servants who did everything for him
probably down to wiping his royal butt!
Wait ... did they have toilet paper back then?
King Louie had us dinner every night served on gold and silver plates,
and could choose between 40 freshly prepared different luxurious dishes.
How do you beat that? You don't have a single cook.
No you don't ... but you have a supermarket with fresh, frozen, canned ingredients, pre-prepared meals,
hundreds of exotic ingredients that Louie had maybe never seen or could rarely afford,
like prickly pears and pepper.
And all in sanitary packaging and screened for salmonella.
If you want to cook from scratch, the meat and vegetables are already be cleaned and pre-portioned.
But if you prefer to sit down and have the food brought to you
you are able to choose between far more than 40 dishes from far more kinds of cuisines than just French,
by picking a nearby restaurant and ordering something from their menu.
And it will take hardly half an hour until it's served to you by a smiling waiter.
King Louie had his OWN tailor!
But you have hundreds of stores and websites with clothing in every type of material,
for any imaginable occasion and taste,
and probably much more comfortable than anything Louie was wearing.
King Louie had a carriage with servants!
But you have a car, trains, ride shares, and can - in just a couple of hours -
fly THOUGH THE AIR to places Louie never dreamt of visiting,
maybe didn't even know existed!
King Louie had woodcutters who brought him logs for the fires that kept his palace cozy.
But you have crews of pipeline maintenance workers, drillers, refineries
sending you constant supply of heating gas that you don't even notice.
King Louie had wick trimming foot men.
But you have light switches, can even hook up your Alexa to turn your lights on and off,
and crews of workers maintaining your power plants and power lines,
and checking the Health and Safety!
King Louie had runners to send messages.
But you have a magic box, that you carry around with you,
that can connect you at the push of a button instantly to any person on the globe!
And crews of people maintaining cell phone towers, internet infrastructure, and satellites
and building more powerful and smaller magic boxes for you
King Louie had a private up apothecary.
But you have a 24-hour Rite Aid on every corner
with a variety of drugs developed by expert chemists and bio technicians,
and can pick between many eager and way more qualified doctors and clinics
than Louie ever had access to.
King Louie had government ministers.
But you have a host of reporters, foreign correspondents, researchers, intellectuals,
comedians, bloggers, and youtubers, who are eager to tell you about everything
from elections or war in a foreign country, to the Queen's new great-grandchild
and how to power a rocket with soda pop!
If you think about it ... you have WAY more than 498 servants
who are eager to help you at a moment's notice!
They are also way more trained and knowledgeable about the services they provide you.
Sure they also work for other people ... but does that really matter?
Now you say: "But he didn't have to work! I DO!"
But ask yourself ... is that really true?
Think about it for a moment.
Do you think he would have remained in power if he had
just sat on his throne and let other people wipe his butt?
If he hadn't known how to negotiate and
navigate the alliances and coalition's of the court and elite of his time?
That might not sound like a job to you, but it was probably way more stressful
and less enjoyable than most of the jobs we have these days
So the bigger question:
What happened since Louis' time to make this possible?
Well, division of labour and exchange made all of this possible,
fueled by a set of favorable institutions that provided a framework for people to cooperate
in ever more efficient and productive ways!
Subscribe, like, share, join our Facebook group, tell us what you would like to see more of!
And if you would like to support us please donate to our Patreon!
You'll get some awesome perks like our 34 exclusive videos of Adam Smith
retelling his book The Wealth of Nations!
... or watch another video!
Thank you so much guys! We LOVE you!
No comments:
Post a Comment