This is an old video, but given current events, I think it’s worth sharing. Part of that is because the crown of the UK just changed hands (heads?), and a lot of people are voicing their opinions about the institution, and their justifications for keeping the House of Windsor in their palaces and finery. I also think it’s relevant because a couple people have been arrested for voicing their opposition to hereditary monarchies. Aside from one or two folks literally making the case for the Divine Right of Kings, mostly the arguments I’ve seen have been about how much money the Crown makes for the UK.
The state could probably make money selling chattel slaves. Quite likely more than they make off the monarchy.
While I don’t think the Crown actually makes money for the taxpayers, it wouldn’t matter if it did, because government is not a business. The purpose of the government isn’t to increase profits: it’s to help the people. Whether or not to keep the monarchy shouldn’t depend on whether it is profitable: it should depend on whether it is beneficial to the people.
My one quibble with that is the fact that we live in a society where money is EVERYTHING. It’s food, it’s water, it’s power, it’s shelter, it’s healthcare (even in the UK, though far less than in the US) – it’s even freedom and the ability to get away with heinous crimes (ask Prince Andrew).
And lack of “income” is constantly used to justify austerity and other policies that funnel money to the top.
I agree that it’s a ridiculous royalist argument, but I don’t think it’s equally ridiculous to point to the amount that’s spent ON the Windsor family, basically because their ancestors murdered everyone who meaningfully objected to their rule.
That, and I think the case has been well made that the queen played a major role in propagandizing/whitewashing the bloody realities of the British Empire.