So, watching the Olympics got me thinking...

[detlef]

OK, so think about how much we bitch and complain about how much it costs to fly the POTUS around on AirForce 1 and how much we spend on Congress and all that. I mean, Gov't is pretty damned expensive even before they actually start spending our money on policy.

 

Now, imagine if, still stuck in this recession, we were subsidizing a freaking royal family that really does cuff-all and wasn't even put in place by us to begin with. That centuries ago, a specific number of families were just deined to be such and that was that. And, for the rest of time, we'd just let them live in palaces amongst us, even after we adopted an actual government to actually run the place, making them basically obsolete.

 

Dude, that crap would get old fast.

 

And, yes, I do understand that we sort of have defacto royalty in the states. Families who own big chunks of the place and all that. But it's not really the same thing. Because every country has that. It's just that some also have this silliness on top of it.

[stevegrab]

Yet some Americans follow the British Royalty and all their nonsense (Charles & Diana wedding, Di's death, etc.) with and adoration that makes one believe they'd like to have true royalty in the US.

[SEC=UGA]

OK, so think about how much we bitch and complain about how much it costs to fly the POTUS around on AirForce 1 and how much we spend on Congress and all that. I mean, Gov't is pretty damned expensive even before they actually start spending our money on policy.

 

Now, imagine if, still stuck in this recession, we were subsidizing a freaking royal family that really does cuff-all and wasn't even put in place by us to begin with. That centuries ago, a specific number of families were just deined to be such and that was that. And, for the rest of time, we'd just let them live in palaces amongst us, even after we adopted an actual government to actually run the place, making them basically obsolete.

 

Dude, that crap would get old fast.

 

And, yes, I do understand that we sort of have defacto royalty in the states. Families who own big chunks of the place and all that. But it's not really the same thing. Because every country has that. It's just that some also have this silliness on top of it.

 

 

And to top it all off the Crown owns ALL of the wild game in the country and if you shoot, say, a deer without their permission you get locked up in some tower somewhere and flogged for two months.

[Chavez]

 

And, yes, I do understand that we sort of have defacto royalty in the states. Families who own big chunks of the place and all that. But it's not really the same thing. Because every country has that. It's just that some also have this silliness on top of it.

 

 

At least our de facto royalty truly EARNED all the stuff they own at some point in time.

 

The British royals aren't even actually British - didn't the actual British royals die off, so they imported German royalty? Because, y'know, a country isn't a country without a wealthy faux king/queen who has no real power.

[detlef]

It begs the question. All those massive gardens taking up prime real estate. Who owns that? Does it belong to the country or specifically to the royal family? If it's the former, imagine how much money they could make by taking it back and selling it off some of it to private buyers. The rest could be saved for parks and such.

[Ditkaless Wonders]

My favorite royal was the Duck of Death. Little Bill showed him the exact deference all royals deserve, except of course for Pippa. I do respect the butt. I love to watch her strutt.