Many economic studies have shown that British royalty is a money-making proposition. Queen Elizabeth had a tax-free salary (an undisclosed agreement with the Exchequer now requires her to pay some taxes, amount unknown). That salary was, the last time I looked, fixed at twenty million dollars a year.
But the Queen’s salary is like the president’s salary. Room and board come free, as does all the rest. Besides that, the amount of property Prince Phillip has is estimated at about half a billion dollars, so you can guess what the actual monarch has.
And the Queen does not live in a castle any more than the president lives in the White House. She lives in a set of modern apartments with air conditioning and heat INSIDE the castle. Queen Victoria kept trying to get some good steam heated apartments and never quite succeeded, because back then it was harder to install that in the castles and she had to live in one of them.
The reason the Exchequer finally had to make a secret agreement with the Queen to pay some taxes on her income was because she made an error I understand. When there was a fire at Windsor Castle, she assumed the taxpayers would pick up the tab. Normally they would, but this time there was an outcry. This caused all the stuff about the Queen not paying taxes to come up in the media.
Actually, I doubt seriously if Queen Elizabeth would be seriously upset if she had to live on a mere million a year. When a Prince of Wales is shaking hands, he uses his left hand, because the right one gets sore. He also has to wear a urine tube like an astronaut so he won’t miss anybody. He stands there for hours.
Most billionaires occasionally go out to a MacDonald’s or in Britain a Wimpy’s. The Queen can’t. Do you think she LIKES those boring dumpy clothes she has to be seen in?
And the most “private” suppers are all-too-well attended. And every servant must be thanked and complimented. I have been to a few embassy and White House meals. I can’t imagine doing that for LIFE. If you gave me a choice between doing that day after day, year after year, or eating at some cheap restaurant every day, I’d take the Soul Food.
No, the Queen wouldn’t mind going down to a mere million or so a year. But if she started living and dressing normally the PEOPLE would raise hell. The TOURISTS would raise even more hell. Economic studies have long since shown that the tourism the monarchy brings in is several times as much as the highest estimate of the cost of the whole Royal Family.
Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, under socialist governments, played it cool. In Sweden the king gets a million bucks a year out of which he has to maintain the old castles. As a result nobody is really aware that any of those countries HAS a monarchy. So the tourists don’t come to gawk.
Gawking pays.
I do not resent Catholic prelates having expensive residences and limousines and bright outfits. The Catholic Church is based on a monarchical view. It is out-of-date, but the thing that attracts people to the Catholic Church is PRECISLY that it is so out-of-date.
The two oldest institutions on earth, by far, are the Catholic Church and the British Monarchy. So I don’t go in making fun of them. I don’t agree with either of them on many things, but that is NOT my point.
When your average person or a Politically Correct moron or a college graduate talks about anything, he quotes from Marx or Mommy Professor about how it should.
Here is a basic. NOTE IT CAREFULLY:
When a professional thinker looks at anything, he first looks at WHY it does what it does. This is the only sense in which I am conservative. I squeeze all the juice I can out of learning what an institution or a person has to offer in practical terms. That is for MY benefit. I only criticize what impinges on what MATTERS, in my case race.
The moron goes in with his mouth moving. The professional goes in with his BRAIN in action.
#1 by Dave on 11/18/2006 - 1:49 pm
NOT SPAM
NOT SPAM
How can you inform an eighteen year old NOT to go to college because of the real WHY of the college?
The kid’s entire REAL EDUCATION lies there at his feet, only to be grasped, for no cost whatsoever.
But only a wolf knows that real knowledge cannot be purchased for any price.
And the value of the Mantra is that it is wolf bait.
Let any opponent unravel this conspiracy, this conspiracy of wolves knowing what only wolves can know.
#2 by Alan B. on 11/18/2006 - 8:58 pm
NOT SPAM
NOT SPAM
It is so typical for the Liberals(neo marxis) to cry and play the class warefare sob story when it comes to the British Monarchy. These do nothings never study nor investigate whether the Monarchy is a plus to the English Nation. This may be related to their worped, twisted and sick minds. The ability to judge any policy or issue in more than one perspective is the true mark of a professional, the political correct researcher is inbred, any one of these wordest androids could be substituted for another and nobody would notice. Can any one of us rational adults immagine our selves living on a university campus, crying blastamy and spreading hate and resentment toward you oun race, while in the company of muddleheaded 18 year olds. The only requirment IS to warp and distort reality and force feed it to our young. Not one of these cowards has the guts to face an adult with this PC garbage, they know they are dishonest and pitifull parasites who feed off the productive members of society, they are tax dependent welfare cases. Remember this, they are outcast of normal society, nobody in the private sector would hire them, they are a waste of DNA and they know it.
#3 by Tom on 11/18/2006 - 10:39 pm
NOT SPAM
NOT SPAM
Dave,
Sheep sicken me, but I like to have faith in fellow members of my generation. If the ones I knew are any indication, that’s all they are going to have.
When I was in elementary school everyone told me that middle school would be much better. I believed them but it was miserable.
When I was in middle school everyone told me that high school would be much better. I believed them but it was only slightly less miserable.
Now they tell me that college will be much better. The rest of my generation believes them; they garner a swift one-finger salute from me. Fooled me twice, won’t let it happen a third.
Not a single opportunity was gained by 13 years of mandatory schooling. Many, a number that will forever be unknown, were lost. A healthy white attitude will surely leave you with your tail between your legs in those institutions. The schools and the library only a short walk from my home are a total joke but this, the Internet, is the greatest educational tool around. Still doesn’t beat experiencing life though.
Of course we know this and I’ve danced around the question. If he’s a wolf in waiting, explain what the system is. Use his hatred of the system. Talk about opportunities lost. Remember that all those years of schooling most likely have made him think he knows it all. Show him he doesn’t. He was shortchanged, tell him what could have been and still can be. In short if he isn’t angry. Make him angry.
#4 by Shari on 11/19/2006 - 10:06 am
Not Spam
Not Spam
Maybe the monarchy and the church have become hollowed out characatures of living things and need a new infusion of life. Maybe it’s like that because IT”S TIME. The young men here are anxious to get cracking and I’m in sympathy with them, but I still think that we will need help to be successful!
#5 by Dave on 11/19/2006 - 12:21 pm
NOT SPAM
NOT SPAM
Tom,
When BW said: “When a professional thinker looks at anything, he first looks at WHY it does what it does. This is the only sense in which I am conservative”, I almost fell out of my chair when I read that.
You cannot imagine the impact a statement this statement has on me. You see, from the time I was your age a read and studied ALL the radical literature: Marxist, Freudian, Libertarian, Rightwing, and KKK, whatever.
The reason I did this is because I believe in Johann Goethe’s dictum: “In life, nothing less than everything will do”.
Because of all my reading, I know that no one has ever boiled down the very essence of the subversive attitude as BW has done in this post. He has boiled it down to what it really is!
In doing so, if you really understand the meaning of BWs post, BW gave you the entire world. That’s all, just a little gift, the entire world.
It is knowing how to evaluate for REAL KNOWLEDGE is what is truly important, and REAL KNOWLEDGE resides in the real WHY of things, things that are mostly unconscious to the broad swath of humanity.
I try to make money in the financial markets. Here’s a challenge. Read everything you can on WHY the dollar is worth what it is worth in the international markets.
What you are going to find is that you will read endlessly confusing BS. Endlessly. You will come across thousands of “experts” claiming all kinds of expertise and experience on the subject.
The problem is no one (assuming they know the secret) is going to give it away because knowing the secret makes you a more skilled competitor.
Their attitude is, “If you don’t have the brains to figure out the secret for yourself, you don’t deserve to know”.
The “secret” is no big deal: The value of dollar in the international markets is determined by the rate of change in overall corporate earnings. That is only meaningful if it is important to you.
But my point is that none of the “experts” clued me in. I had to figure it out for myself, just like everybody else.
But knowing that is to know the real WHY of the dollar’s value.
Accordingly, no professor is going to tell you the real WHY of the University. Why should he? He makes his living by you NOT KNOWING that.
Accordingly, the University has no courses for BW to teach.
#6 by Alan B. on 11/19/2006 - 4:37 pm
NOT SPAM
NOT SPAM
The challenge, preparing our kids on what to expect, public education and myth. This is simple, actually its hardly a challenge at all. Your the parent so be the teacher, train their minds to think before they enter public education system. For those of us who see the world for what it really IS, start early, keep it simple, stay inguaged, participate in your childs education at home, cut out an hour of crap each evening and use it for homework guidence.
#7 by Tom on 11/19/2006 - 10:34 pm
NOT SPAM
NOT SPAM
Dave,
That is a wonderful dictum. Though it is the first time I have heard it, I’ve taken it to heart for years.
I have developed an interest in literature again and started collecting E-books. The hardest thing was figuring out where to start but I think I have that figured out. If you have any suggestions on important works I’d love to hear it.
Hopefully I’ll develop some knowledge of my own. Till then.
#8 by Elizabeth on 11/19/2006 - 11:52 pm
I left home at an early age due to a very dysfunctional family. I was able to start college at 16 and, months later, began living in a dorm. The two best things about college for me were that I was able to get out of my hell-on-Earth for several months a year and that I had an amazing library to delve into. I had a couple of really good professors, one of whom was a total political loonie but the guy did teach me how to write. The degree has meant very little — it’s actually usually been a hindrance — except when I was in DC, as a 4-year degree means you can come in as a GS-5 secretary or (most) clerks with no testing.
I find “real life” to generally be very grim. I enjoy being able to get out of the grim grayness for at least an hour on Sundays for some beauty and good music, as well as some spiritual illumination. I’m one of the older members of an incoming wave of converts and traditionalistic types who are really shaking up the hierarchy: the libbies, most of whom are 60 and older, spit venom and get red faced even talking about us. (See the Nov. 20th Time magazine article on nuns with blogs.)
#9 by Elizabeth on 11/23/2006 - 1:11 am
NOT SPAM
NOT SPAM
I grew up in a very politically-aware household. (We had to be the only conservative
family in the U.S. in the ’60s with a VW bus.) I learned to question mainstream media almost before I learned to read. Eventually, I went on to question other received wisdom.
If you’ve got kids, YOU ARE THE PARENT. Don’t lie back and abdicate your responsibility as a parent
to the kids’ teachers and peers because it’s “too hard” to BE THE PARENT. Who told you being a parent would be easy????