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Comment by xani_ | Hacker News Reader

The whole monarch clowfest does bring tourism in so it might be not complete waste of tax money

I've heard that many times but I've always wondered whether is is a net positive given all the tax spending that goes towards the royal family. I guess we'll never know since it's impossible to tell exactly how much tourism is in part based on the queen/king/monarchy sentiment.

It ignores the fact that the royal family owns a tremendous amount of assets that are not directly used in tourism or used by the state. And that they live off those taxes and spending.

If the UK abolished the monarchy, tourism attractions like Westminster and the Crown Jewels would still exist

Imagine the money they'd make if they turned Buckingham Palace into a hotel.

Is 20 odd billion £ really a tremendous amount of assets when the government can magic up 150 billion on a whim to cap energy bills?

It's peanuts in the scheme of things. The royal family aren't even that rich amongst the billion class in the US.

> 20 odd billion £ really a tremendous amount of assets

yes

> government can magic up 150 billion

that is also a tremendous amount which the next British generations will labour decades to pay off, just so today's pensioners can heat their homes to the 25C they are used to, and still have their ski outings in Zermatt.

> that is also a tremendous amount which the next British generations will labour decades to pay off, just so today's pensioners can heat their homes to the 25C they are used to, and still have their ski outings in Zermatt.

It is a tremendous amount indeed, but i don't know why you think it's only pensioners and skiers who would benefit from not having to choose between food and energy.

The king is paid from earnings generated by the Crown Estate [0], which is basically a state owned property investment fund. From my understanding, taxpayer money hasn't been used to fund the monarchy since the 1700s.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Estate

The sovereign grant currently running around £90M/year: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Grant_Act_2011

By no means am I an expert on this, but it looks like the sovereign grant is a tax refund paid to the crown from the taxes that the Crown Estate pays.

https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-57559653.amp

The sovereign grant is paid to the Windsor family, not the Crown.

It is important to distinguish the "Crown" (essentially the monarchy-as-government) and the queens' family and hangers-on...

It's peanuts though? I mean that's about 1000 well paid London software engineers paying their typical income tax.

France has abolished monarchy yet people still come to visit Versailles.

If you voted in a new royal family who had to consent to a reality TV show, you would get a lot more tourism. I hear the Osbournes are back in town.

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