The True Cost of the Royal Family Explained
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite it in monarchy debates as the explainer claiming the royals make money for the UK, with some disputing it.
What it is
CGP Grey breaks down what the British Royal Family costs the UK versus what it brings in, including income from royal-owned land. He concludes the government nets a profit from the arrangement.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2013 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Recommends TamDenholm · 2013-04 · on “Things that Americans find incomprehensible about the UK”
Pretty interesting and i agree with all the points. One thing about the monarchy is the argument that they cost a lot. CGP Grey did a video explaining the true cost of the monarchy. [this video] Also, check out his channel, he does loads of amazing videos. [LINK]
Cites Accacin · 2014-06 · on “A symbol of British democracy, "The Queen shows us who isn't boss"”
I'm not sure that I agree. If you look at this video ( [this video] ) you'll see just how much money they make for the UK. I'm also quite sure that most of the Royal Family do more work than most people do.
Cites rtkwe · 2014-06 · on “A symbol of British democracy, "The Queen shows us who isn't boss"”
The monarchy actually saves the country money over all from just first layer income given to the country... [this video]
Cites marquis · 2014-06 · on “A symbol of British democracy, "The Queen shows us who isn't boss"”
For what it's worth, the UK government currently makes a healthy profit from the Royal Family. [LINK] In video form: [this video]
Cites jmkni · 2015-05 · on “UK government quietly rewrites hacking laws to give GCHQ immunity”
There's a popular CGP Grey video which claims the opposite, ie that the monarchy is a money spinner for the UK, and not just because of tourism Are you saying this is incorrect? - [this video]
Cites GarrisonPrime · 2019-11 · on “How to Hide a Billion Dollars”
The True Cost of the Royal Family Explained, video by CGP Grey: [this video] too long; didn't watch: The royal family likely contributes quite significantly to the popularity of the UK tourism industry, which brings in FAR more money to the country than the institution costs to maintain, even considering all the royal salaries to pay, the palaces to maintain, public events to produce, security, etc. They also lease out a great amount of land to the country - to the wide benefit of the entire populace - for pennies of what it would cost the nation to purchase such land and resources outright.
Cites yunruse · 2019-11 · on “Another reason Prince Andrew is a disgrace”
It’s a good tourist attraction, to be entirely fair, it’s just that the extended royal family quickly descends into situations like these. You could also make the argument that profits from royal-owned land – which is handed over to Parliament in return for a fixed salary – saves each UK citizen over £2 in taxes per year [1]. [1] [this video]
Cites throwaway_2047 · 2021-02 · on “The Queen has more power over British law than we thought”
According to [this video] , the royal family brings in 160M pound from land property with a maintenance cost of 40M pound, and an additional 7000M pound from tourism