The way I am exhausting them is so subtle that it remains beyond them. However, their sight is dazzled by the grand works I make them do.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 242 to 244 (in French)
Jacques Bonhomme, June 15th, 1848

In this little tale, Frédéric Bastiat imagines a discussion he is having with a minister named Budget. The latter is of incredible cynicism and shows how levying taxes from the workers in order to pay back some of it in exchange of their labour ends up being an unpopular policy because the gullibility of the people reaches some limit. 

However, the ignominy of politicians having no limits, he shows how he managed to create a diversion by inventing indirect taxes, which are much less obvious for the people to identify. Thus, he managed to increase his own spending along government spending, the latter allowing to dazzle the people who remains completely in the dark. Today’s quote, attributed to the minister, shows the extent of his contempt for the people.

Upon observing the budgetary debate in France nowadays, one has to admit that nothing has been learnt. Levies are way more important today than they were in the 19th century but the people accept the argument that, without them, the State could not distribute welfare the way it does (mainly retirement benefits, healthcare and other Welfare State spending – or even the salaries of the civil servants in the name of defending public service).