Gina Tangelo

12/4/16
Voltaire and Affordable Housing

Voltaire, born Francois-Marie Arouet was probably the most famous of

the philosophes. He was a writer, historian, and philosopher. He wrote more

than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books based on what he believed.1 He was

always fighting with the church and the clergy because he felt that there

were so many things wrong with it. Lots of his works were banned by the

church and so he was imprisoned in Bastille for a year and forced into exile.

He still continued to defend his beliefs even as he saw his books outlawed

and burned. His work was praised by and known by many. Many rulers

followed his teachings like Catherine the Great and her sons.2 There are

many problems that politicians try to focus on when running for president,

one of them being affordable housing. In American is it hardest for foreigners

and homeless people to have homes because its too expensive. My

candidate would not have been for creating affordable housing according to

what Voltaire believed in.

Voltaire focused on freedom of religion and freedom of speech.3 He used bit

wit as a weapon to expose the abuses of his day. His slogan was My trade is

1 Andrews, Evan. "10 Things You Should Know About Voltaire." History.com.
2014. Accessed December 04, 2016. http://www.history.com/news/10-things-
you-should-know-about-voltaire.

2 Elisabeth Gaynor. Ellis, Anthony Esler, and Burton F. Beers, World History:
Connections to Today (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003).

3 Andrews, 10 Things

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to say what I think. He targeted corrupt officials and idle aristocrats as well

as battling inequality, injustice, and superstition. He detested the slave trade

and deplored religious prejudice. His outspoken attacks offended both the

French government and the Catholic Church.4 He thought that religion was a

necessity in order to keep social order5 as well as religion is instituted to

make us happy in this life and the next. He thought that everyone should be

looked at the same and thought that the statement Love God and your

neighbor was a key element that every man should remember.6 He said that

equality is the most natural thing and the most fantastic and all men have

the right in the bottom of their hearts to think themselves entirely equal to

other men. He thought that all the poor are not unhappy and that all

men want their money. He thought that men cannot be equal and have two

people not jealous of each other at the same time.7 He thought about

equality based mostly off of religion, a quality that isnt seen so much today.

Affordable housing is a great problem in America. Presidential candidate

Hillary Clinton had a plan for solving this problem. She wanted to provide tax

incentives to increase the supply of affordable housing in high-cost areas and

4 Ellis World History: Connections to Today

5 Shank, J.B. "Voltaire." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2009. Accessed
November 30, 2016. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voltaire/.

6 Voltaire. "TREATISE ON TOLERANCE." TREATISE ON TOLERANCE. Accessed

December 04, 2016. http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/engl_258/Lecture
Notes/treatise_on_tolerance.

7 Perry, Jonathan. "Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary." Voltaire's Philosophical

Dictionary. Accessed November 30, 2016.
https://history.hanover.edu/texts/voltaire/volequal.html

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expand rental assistance so that more families can afford to rent a home.

She also said she would tackles homelessness, particularly for at-risk

populations like veterans and LGBT youth.8 The other presidential candidate

Donald Trump did not even focus on something like this as to him it was not

seen to be so serious. This problem has caused for many people to be living

in poverty and on the streets, homeless. Of course, there are other

candidates who saw this as a problem and have tried to fix this and yet it is

still here today.

Based on Voltaires thinking, my candidate would be all for creating

affordable housing. Since Voltaire was for the idea of everyone being equal,

my candidate would definitely want to change this problem. He would try

and help out the LGBT youth that are constantly judged just for their

sexuality. He would also lower the prices in high-cost areas and improve the

taxes so they are more affordable for everyone. He would approve of

everything that Hillary thought about doing and would join in with her for all

the things that she proposed. My candidate, Bob the Burke, would do

everything in his power to try and help the people.

In conclusion, my candidate is a very thoughtful person and thinks

about everyones equality over everything, a quality taken from Voltaire. Bob

the Burke would have been a great candidate for the 2016 election. Bob

would work with what the people wanted and would tackle the highest

authority to challenge what they think to be right. Voltaire would be the

8 "Poverty." Hillary for America. Accessed December 4, 2016.

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/poverty/.

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exact same if he were in the Bobs position, hence why they are so much

alike. Though affordable housing has been a problem for a while now, Bob

will do everything he can to fix it. And although affordable housing is just one

of the many problems that need to be fixed, Bob the Burke would have

addressed each of the other problems to the best of his ability.