The pauper king

[keniakittykat]

I'm sure there are at least some Belgian people here. But for those who have no idea, our beloved resigned King, Albert the second, Has asked the government for more money.
He complains the 15000 tax payer fee he receives every month doesn't cover the heating bill for his huge castle and he doesn't have enough for fueling the royal yacht.

Let's see how much sympathy have in my wallet for someone who owns a gigantic fucking yacht.... Nope, I'm all tapped out!

This just sickens me. Be glad most of you people don't live in monarchy's... I just had to complain about it to someone, I'm sorry it was you.

 

[AWAR]

The king of welfare leeches.

 

[JoJo]

Just be thankful you don't live in Saudi Arabia, where the King would be able to take as much money as he likes without asking anyone and if you don't like that, well enjoy prison. 15K a month doesn't sound like much, I'm pretty sure the top British royals get millions a year each, so his request isn't too unreasonable.

 

[keniakittykat]

15K a month doesn't sound like much, I'm pretty sure the top British royals get millions a year each, so his request isn't too unreasonable.

Yeah, the thing is, he is a resigned king, he stepped down a few months ago. The ruling King and Queen get over 900k a month. And every single person of the royal family gets payed. Even the sister in-law of the king's aunt's grandchild's second cousin.
that and less than 2 weeks earlier it was found out that the resigned Queen has millions put away in a foreign fund, so the tax people couldn't get to it.

And refusing to pay for the Royal family is considered a felony here too. Tax evasion to be exact. And it also lands you a nice prison cell. (Although I'd much rather be in Belgian prison than Arabian prison, especially as an unmarried woman..)

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Ah, inequality. Thy name is the royalist system.

 

[LongAndShort]

15K a month doesn't sound like much, I'm pretty sure the top British royals get millions a year each, so his request isn't too unreasonable.

I'd ask the question of what he adds to the Belgian economy. I know the British Royal Family as a brand are worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to the economy in tourism, prestige and awareness. Does the Belgian Royal Family have the same kind of brand value?

 

[JoJo]

Yeah, the thing is, he is a resigned king, he stepped down a few months ago. The ruling King and Queen get over 900k a month. And every single person of the royal family gets payed. Even the sister in-law of the king's aunt's grandchild's second cousin.
that and less than 2 weeks earlier it was found out that the resigned Queen has millions put away in a foreign fund, so the tax people couldn't get to it.

And refusing to pay for the Royal family is considered a felony here too. Tax evasion to be exact. And it also lands you a nice prison cell. (Although I'd much rather be in Belgian prison than Arabian prison, especially as an unmarried woman..)

Fair enough, I suppose I can't really judge this situation since I don't know enough about the Belgian royals. On your second paragraph though, that isn't really what I meant, I mean at-least the Belgian royals have to ask the elected government to raise their salaries, rather than just giving themselves another billion dollars.

I'd ask the question of what he adds to the Belgian economy. I know the British Royal Family as a brand are worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to the economy in tourism, prestige and awareness. Does the Belgian Royal Family have the same kind of brand value?

I couldn't quote any specific figures but I doubt they do, I mean I've never heard of anyone going to Belgium to see their royals in particular, unlike Buckingham Palace and the associated royal pomp being one of the UK's top tourist destinations.

 

[LongAndShort]

I'd ask the question of what he adds to the Belgian economy. I know the British Royal Family as a brand are worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to the economy in tourism, prestige and awareness. Does the Belgian Royal Family have the same kind of brand value?

I couldn't quote any specific figures but I doubt they do, I mean I've never heard of anyone going to Belgium to see their royals in particular, unlike Buckingham Palace and the associated royal pomp being one of the UK's top tourist destinations.

Yeah, I've just tried a search and couldn't find any figures regarding the Belgian Royals. Apparently the British Royal Family 'firm' is valued at 44 billion pounds.
I found an old estimate for Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary on Denmark which guessed 12 billion kroner (which I just converted on my computer to about 1.34 billion pounds), so maybe the Belgian Royal family adds some heavy value as well?

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

I'm sure there are at least some Belgian people here. But for those who have no idea, our beloved resigned King, Albert the second, Has asked the government for more money.
He complains the 15000 tax payer fee he receives every month doesn't cover the heating bill for his huge castle and he doesn't have enough for fueling the royal yacht.

Let's see how much sympathy have in my wallet for someone who owns a gigantic fucking yacht.... Nope, I'm all tapped out!

This just sickens me. Be glad most of you people don't live in monarchy's... I just had to complain about it to someone, I'm sorry it was you.

You know what's funny?

The fact that he also receives an additional (untaxed!!!) 743.000 EUR in "werkingskosten" (I'm not going to translate that, excuse my laziness) on top of his monthly wage of 8.600 EUR.

Our current king, His Royal Majesty Fillip I himself, yearly receives a whopping 10,5 MILLION euro (again, untaxed)!!!

Oh royalty, you lovely product of an era long, long gone....

(source: http://www.jobat.be/nl/artikels/hoeveel-dotatie-krijgen-de-leden-van-ons-belgisch-koningshuis/)