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Well I (an American) agree with your sentiment, it appears that the British royalty don't actually rely on tax money, but instead they keep 25% of the money that the royaly estate /makes/ and the other 75% goes to the British treasury.

But I might be wrong. https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-57559653




The Crown Estate is where the sovereign grant comes from, and it's weird. It's "owned" by the current monarch, but only in their role as head of state (the Crown). Realistically it belongs to the country and to the public, and were we to abolish monarchy, would not become the private property of the Windsor family.

So while they don't rely on tax money (outside of the huge amount of tax money spent on their police protection, transport in military aircraft, etc. etc.), they do rely on money which rightfully belongs to the people of the nation.


> were we to abolish monarchy, would not become the private property of the Windsor family.

Today, I expect that's what would happen. But I bet the Windsor family could have kept a lot if they had given up monarchy a while back. Which puts the "rightfully belongs to the people" claim in question, if you believe a king can ever legitimately own anything.


Also an American and I like the British (and also Japanese) royals. Benevolent monarchs are a cornerstone of serenity and sanity.

And yes, I realize the irony as an American. I think on average Americans like the British royal family more than Britons do?


> Benevolent monarchs…

The British royal family has veto power over parliament. They use this power to rewrite laws. Lots of this is well documented, but poorly publicised.


Pity they didn't stop Brexit, which would have been an actual good use of their veto power.


> Benevolent monarchs are a cornerstone of serenity and sanity.

So they are great until they aren’t, and then there is no mechanism to remove them.

Dictatorships are also good if you get a great leader.




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