LET THEM EAT CAKE BY ASMI GUPTO
The most well-known quote attributed to Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the French Revolution, is "Let them eat cake": This was apparently the queen's reaction when she learned that her famished subjects were without bread. This tale has been used to illustrate Marie Antoinette's ignorance of the circumstances and everyday lives of common people since cake is costlier than bread. It is rather unfortunate that even in the year 2025, we are witnessing an economy which is rather similar to that of the 1700s. Inequality in India has skyrocketed since the early 2000s, with the income and wealth share of the top one per cent of the population rising to 22.6 per cent and 40.1 per cent , respectively, in 2022-23, according to a working paper. The paper titled, “Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj” stated that between 2014-15 and 2022-23 , the rise of top-end inequality has been particularly pronounced in term...
