> what the desirable alternative is here
replyLimits 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?
replyAristocracies 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.
replyIt'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?
replyOrganized companies of men with guns, drones, tear gas, and access to the browser history of every person in the country
replyThe 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.
replyKing 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.
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.
replyOh 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.
replyYou 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
reply