Let them eat cake.

The phrase is commonly invoked as a symbol of aristocratic indifference to popular suffering—an out-of-touch ruler supposedly responding to bread shortages with a frivolous suggestion. Historically, however, it is best understood as a political myth: a rhetorical shorthand used to dramatize the gulf between courtly privilege and the hardships of ordinary people. Its endurance comes from its narrative efficiency: in a single line it encapsulates resentment toward elites and the moral charge that power can breed ignorance of basic needs.