Hollande's proposed tax hikes may drive businesspeople from France.

[LastVoter]

Worldwide tax increase, so the rich have nowhere to run.

[LastVoter]

I think you'll agree with me in saying that the idea of a Revolution in the US or most other Western countries is 'beyond the horizon', that is, very obviously not happening any time soon, and that they have no reason to fear the guillotine. Thus such a compromise has no potential benefit for ... 'ruling class'.

You're quite right!  The slaves are well under control, and there is little hope.  However in theory it is possible the controllers could be hurt in some way, some day.  After all the fact remains that there have been revolutions, and ruling classes have been slaughtered/forced into exile before.

Always to be immediately replaced by other ruling classes, which generally treated the People much, much worse than their predecessors. Also, not sure what it has to do with the topic at hand, but for some reason I feel the need to mention that several of my ancestors fought for the Red Army in the Russian Civil War.

I hope the two aren't connected, alternate timeline without red victory in Russia would be a very bleak one for the world.

[LastVoter]

I think you'll agree with me in saying that the idea of a Revolution in the US or most other Western countries is 'beyond the horizon', that is, very obviously not happening any time soon, and that they have no reason to fear the guillotine. Thus such a compromise has no potential benefit for ... 'ruling class'.

You're quite right!  The slaves are well under control, and there is little hope.  However in theory it is possible the controllers could be hurt in some way, some day.  After all the fact remains that there have been revolutions, and ruling classes have been slaughtered/forced into exile before.

Always to be immediately replaced by other ruling classes, which generally treated the People much, much worse than their predecessors. Also, not sure what it has to do with the topic at hand, but for some reason I feel the need to mention that several of my ancestors fought for the Red Army in the Russian Civil War.

I hope the two aren't connected, alternate timeline without red victory in Russia would be a very bleak one for the world.

I'd have to agree with you that the Russian Civil War was one of those incidences where the communists were on the side of good, on the basis that communism is better than fascism. Obviously capitalism is much better than any form of communism (I know you disagree with your theory that nobody wanted to leave the USSR).

I don't think that's what I implied, I said less people wanted to leave "communist" USSR than "capitalist" Russia.