Mark Twain visited the Versailles in 1867 and marveled at it's extent and craftsmanship in construction and maintenance. One point that struck me is the relationship between the workers and the high borne that had it built:

 " I used to abuse Louis XIV for spending two hundred millions of dollars in creating this marvelous park, when bread was so scarce with some of his subjects; but I have forgiven him now. He took a tract of land sixty miles in circumference and set to work to make this park and build this palace and a road to it from Paris. He kept 36,000 men employed daily on it, and the labor was so unhealthy that they used to die and be hauled off by cartloads every night. The wife of a nobleman of the time speaks of this as an 'inconvenience,' but naively remarks that 'it does not seem worthy of attention in the happy state of tranquillity we now enjoy.'"

 Does this sound like Ann Romney? Or perhaps the aspirations of some pizza baron?