European Constitutional Monarchies Ought to be Dissolved

I am sure that it will be certainly highly informative as well as fun. Now on to my opening argument. 1. Economic Strains Presented With Monarchies A major issue presented with the continuation of monarchies, and with it all of their traditions, is that it is extremely expensive to keep up. This is due to the fact that the monarchs and the royal families have an appalling tradition of living in luxury at the expense of their subjects. As Europeans are generally highly motivated to keep tradition alive, seeing that many of the countries have monarchs in office (albeit in a limited role), they are most likely not going to cut any expenses towards keeping the royal families lives in luxury. For example, within the UK this past year the royal family cost taxpayers £35.7 million, which was a £1.9 million increase from 2013 [1]. Graph A shows how this money is being spent within the royal family. Graph A: This shows that there was a large increase in cost towards the maintenance of the royal families property (i. e. castles, palaces, estates, etc. ) While I understand that it is important to maintain ones culture, is the restoration of a few castles worth £13.3 million of taxpayers money which could be going towards things that would actually effect them? I obviously think not. If we look at the other numbers, one glaring issue is that travel expenses are at £4.2 million. This is an absurd amount of money for the government to be asking the people for given that all it goes to is making sure that the royal family gets luxurious travel arrangements. This number could easily be reduced to a quarter of the size that it is now. However, I would like to ask my opponent if a reform towards the monarchy is worth it, or if it would be better for the UK to simply remove the royal family [2]. However, this debate is not solely regarding the removal of the British monarchy, as it is also about the remainder of the other European countries that still are afflicted with a Constitutional Monarch. Graph B displays the amount of tax money required to maintain the government in all of the European countries with a monarch, while also displaying Germany's expenses, to compare these countries to one without a monarch. Graph B: Without closer examination, it appears that their is little difference between Germany and the other countries, and that in fact Germany pays more for their government. This is true, however the category that we should be considering is not the overall cost, but the Per Capita cost and Comparison of Tax burden sections. The reason for this is that due to Germany having a very large country it is inevitable that their government will cost more than smaller countries such as Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, etc. This makes it even more surprising that smaller countries like the UK and the Netherlands still pay more for their government than Germany does, therefore implying that the monarchies their are a huge part of their costs. Anyways, returning to the main focus, in the Per Capita cost section, Germany's is lower than all of the other countries with the exception of Spain and Liechtenstein. The reason for the exceptions of Spain and Liechtenstein is that the royal families do not require as much from the people as they generally rely on their own personal fortunes. However, it proves the point that countries with monarchies generally have a higher taxation on their people to maintain the government. To further support this claim, the Comparison of tax burden section shows that once again Germany's is lower than all of the other countries except Spain and Liechtenstein (for the same reason). 2. Lack of Political ImportanceIt is no secret that the kings and queens of Europe are no more than figureheads established so that their respective countries can increase tourism. While some may argue that the monarchs do technically have official duties that they can do, however I would like to ask you if it is at all possible for these apparently insignificant chores to be done by some one else, preferably not of "noble" blood? My point here, in its essence, is that the monarchs of Europe have a very limited role in government and that they are in the end a highly unnecessary part of the government in their country. Taking into account the fact that the monarchies cost so much, how does it make any sense to keep them as a part of the government given that they do next to nothing? To clarify this point of view, I would like to create a similar situation. For example, someone has been told that their pet was inevitably going to die within a year. Now they could chose to put the animal down, in the process saving their pet an enormous amount of pain. Or they could chose to keep the animal alive for another year, having to pay an obscene amount of money on medicines to maintain their pets physical state. Logic tells us that the first option makes the most sense here. This is surprisingly a very similar situation to the monarchy issue in Europe. The countries are presented with a dilemma, remove the monarchy and save themselves a boatload of money that could be used on other things or keep the monarchy which will do absolutely nothing for their own well being while taking up huge sums of their money so that they can live in luxury. Similarly to the first scenario, logic tells us that the first option is the better option. To finish off this argument, I would like to quote CNN opinion writer Graham Smith who stated about the British monarchy that "After 60 years who can quote a famous speech or point to a moment of crisis or celebration when the queen offered leadership and inspiration? " [3]. While this is in the context of the British Monarchy alone, it can be interpreted similarly for other European countries. In essence, Smith is saying that the age of the Monarch as the inspiring figure to rally behind has ended and therefore their is little purpose of keeping them a part of the government any longer. Back over to you, Con. Sources[1] . http://www.independent.co.uk...[2] . http://facthai.wordpress.com...[3] . http://www.cnn.com...