Why was the bourgeoisie dissatisfied with the Old Regime?

Because despite wealth and education it did not receive birth-based status

The bourgeoisie consisted largely of merchants, manufacturers, professionals, and educated members of the Third Estate. Many had acquired wealth through trade, business, law, or administration, and Enlightenment ideas encouraged them to value talent, education, and achievement. However, the Old Regime assigned social prestige and political privilege mainly according to birth. Nobles and clergy enjoyed inherited status and exemptions, while wealthy bourgeois people could still be treated as socially inferior because they were not born into a privileged order. Thus option B is correct: their economic and intellectual importance was not matched by equal social or political recognition. Option A is wrong because the bourgeoisie was not entirely poor; the other options confuse its position with that of privileged estates.

This is a Class 9 History question. Chapter: The French Revolution. Topic: French Society During the Late Eighteenth Century.