So no merit, effort or capability-based gains; instead a straight title, prestige, wealth and inheritance gain through DNA, over which no offspring has any control.
So no merit, effort or capability-based gains; instead a straight title, prestige, wealth and inheritance gain through DNA, over which no offspring has any control.
He got equal inheritance rights as every person gets from his parents. In this case I see it as "You had a kid, you better take charge of that."
Also:
> But he will not receive a royal allowance, nor will he be expected to take on official duties, and he has no rights to the Belgian throne. Vandenkerckhove could take his father’s family name, Saxe-Coburg, but has indicated he may not choose to.
I mean that's a straight loss of 7 characters, 8 letters if you count it that way. Bad deal!
” But he will not receive a royal allowance, nor will he be expected to take on official duties, and he has no rights to the Belgian throne.”
So it seems nothing will change for him.
I got curious about this but it seems that this is also the case for all his siblings. His bio dad gets it (EUR 300k/y) because of a transitional compromise but the future princes aside from the presumptive heir to the throne will not get it.
Not that they might be any close to being destitute given the estate size.
As for him, I suppose you can sue for backpay child support.
he can now borrow against that inheritance
You know or you merely speculate?
The article states he's due for a share of the inheritance, as to if he could get a prodigal son style advance I dont know
Yeah, people leave their things to their children. It's been happening for quite some time now. You should look into it.
Wait, you mean there's a place in the world where people with merit, effort, and capability thrive?
Yes. unfortunately rich people without merit effort and capability are still rich and some of them don't work very hard, so it looks pretty much the same as every other place in the world.
His ancestors murdered and stole a whole lot for him to gain that priviledge.
Like the good nepotistic society we are
I'm struggling to understand what the desirable alternative is here. Children shouldn't be recognized by their patients? Or only lower class parents should have the burden of sharing their income with their children?
> what the desirable alternative is here
Limits on how much parents can spend other people's resources on their kids. Which goes with civil office being a job rather than a special privilege.
Expert nobody is spending anything on the new prince?
Aristocracies should not exist anywhere on earth in 2026, except in ceremonial form. Their ill-gotten gains should be expropriated into the hands of the state.
It's dishonest of you to argue that they should be treated like normal citizens while they cling desperately to their distinct and superior position. If they want to be treated as normal people all they have to do is renounce their titles.
So what's stopping the Belgian people from grabbing torches and pitchforks, marching to the castle, and demanding that this injustice be immediately reconciled?
The king is already mostly ceremonial. He seems mainly a stabilization factor for the country when both halves get a bout of separatism once more: He is the ultimate person every major politician talks to when nobody wants to talk to each other. The king does have some extra rights, but not too much, and the alternative seems worse.
King Albert 2 didn't want to become king but nobody else with enough capability was available. So it's not just a fun job.
But yes, the discussion to king or not pops up once in a while, and the general response seems to be we got much bigger problems.
European constitutional monarchies seem much less autocratic than the current US presidency, so I don't see what the big deal is.
Organized companies of men with guns, drones, tear gas, and access to the browser history of every person in the country
All children should be gestated in womb-bladders in state hatcheries, and raised to maturity by the state. Knowing or wanting to know your parents should be considered a deviancy, a perversion.
Oh wait that’s Brave New World. Or The Naked Sun, depending on your preferred flavour of SF nightmare.
Or Plato's Republic, if one prefers older books.
You might find interesting an old comment of mine speculating about legal rights of a human being born by an artificial womb: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37314083
That’s what royalty is
Sounds like the definition of monarchy?
Sounds like any rich kid ever TBH.
Wealth gain? How?
Inheritance, or more quickly the ability to borrow against that inheritance.
could be worse, there are people all over the world that look startling a lot like Musk including in Africa but he won't do DNA tests
(not making this up, google it)
Are you advocating for all children being anonymized and raised in orphanages? Or a 100% inheritance tax? Or just expressing disappointment at your own relative lack of wealthy & famous recent ancestors?
100% inheritance tax would be ideal, but it's never going to happen in practice.
My father has a wonderful collection of model trains. It’s rather valuable in money. I have been playing with his trains since I was a young boy. Good memories.
Are you telling me that if I can’t afford to pay the state the full value of that train set, the trains will go to a government auction?
Yes? Why would you deserve free money?
So if his father gives him the trains before death, it's fine, but at or after is not? Fun times ahead!
Also the value of model trains and the selling price are highly different numbers.
That's incredibly fucked up and heartless.
You should be expropriated. Why would you deserve property?
Turn that around, though: Why would the state deserve 100% of my stuff, just because I died? Why can't I dispose of it as I see fit?
I think real estate and capital shouldn't be in the same category personal items are in. As a society we often conflate them but we shouldn't.
Remove the greatest incentive for long term investment, what could go wrong?
What are some of our greatest long term investments? I can think of a few: The national parks, university system, Federal Reserve, NIH...
"you can't just abolish nepotism, that's tantamount to abolishing capitalism!"
yes
"People bequeathing their own property is literally nepotism" - Tankies and their idols Stalin, Mao, and Kim Jong Un
RNG green username has -1 total karma as I post this
Depending on what motivations are, separate controlling interest from personal wealth, at least above some reasonable limit.
Obviously easier said than done, but unless the predominant incentive for everyone is just to generate more wealth for themselves/relatives/etc, other existing incentives should be sufficient to invest.
There's absolutely nothing ideal about being unable to give the things you worked for to your loved ones when you die. It's incredibly callous and devoid of compassion to do that to people.
If you view this life as a simulation and that this is the only possible one you will inhibit, it all looks absurd for the very thing you mentioned, the snapshot of it alone suggests chaos stochastic properties with seemingly no order but this isn't your fault as much of Western perspective has judeo-christian roots reject the Eastern philosophy that have preceded it for several milllenias thus I'd argue would be more grounded and accurate seeing that geographically isolated and separated cultures who have never come into contact with other have discovered the same conclusions.
The new wave movement in the West frame it as a simulation hypothesis perspective, your DNA is the passport through many simulations you've experienced and it carries the merit, effort and capabilities gained over time.
We just call it Buddhism outside san francisco.
This is reality, meritocracy is the exception, not the rule.