If the Queen only costs 66p per annum per person, how much does it cost say the Americans for their president?

Question

uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080627/tuk-q... I went to the link above and again within a short space of time the cost of the Queen to each person in the UK is in the media domain. It has to be remembered that these costs are not just for the Queen but for all the staff that travel as well and often at the express wish of Government for political gain.

How much does the President of the United States cost and what about the recently elected President in France who according to sources is spending money beyond belief? To the best of my knowledge neither President draws in crowds for the people of their country to benefit from the revenue of tourism as the Queen does.

Answer 1

she doesn't cost 66p each - this figure does not include security. total cost therefore is probably 3 times this. still £1.98 is not too bad.

in terms of Bush, about the same, maybe more. But we Brits have to pay for the PM as well.

Answer 2

Unfair comparison really, there are a lot more Americans than us Brits so it will be much less per head of population. That said, if you remember that ex presidents continue to cost big money for security and that there are several of them still about, our Royal Family start to look like really good value for money.

Besides which they prevent someone like Tony B. liar from running for president.

You can't pay enough for a bonus like that.

Answer 3

I'm not too sure, but i definately want a refund...

Answer 4

It's just the poloticians blagging us to keep her in power. They government cream billions off the public. What about buisness rates. They don't want people to become economically to strong.

Answer 5

one of the main reasons people come to our miserable little island is for our history of which the royal family is a huge part, 66p is nothing even if it was a fiver per annum even people on minimum  wage make more than that in an hour. the royal family is awesome i would hate to have gordon brown as my head of state + we all no how good he is with money. Long live the queen

Answer 6

His salary is only a tiny part of his costs, his security costs tens of millions per year; Air Force / Marine / Army one costs millions per year also...

Do I go on?

Answer 7

The cost of £40m for the monarchy is a misnomer.  These are not the Queen's direct 'wages' (if that can be equated as such).

The vast, VAST majority of this money (70%) is spent on the salaries and pensions of the staff of the Sovereign, whose pay is linked to the civil service bands, and which is annually audited by the Treasury.  Under a republic this cost would be the same, perhaps even increase.

A good deal of the remainder (about 20%) is spent on the maintenance of the official residences of the Queen, such as Buckingham Palace, Holyrood Castle, and so on.  These residences are property of the Crown, i.e. the State, NOT the Queen personally.  If we were a republic they would continue to be operated by the State.

The remainder (about 10%) is provided by Parliament on an ad hoc basis to enable the Queen to fulfill her functions as Head of State - missions abroad, representations to charities, institutions and foreign diplomats, maintenance of the Royal Flight and so on.

The actual money granted for the day-to-day living of the Queen (I suppose you could call it Her 'salary' though it's an inaccurate phrase) is about £300,000.

Moreover, about £100m is donated by the Queen annually into the Treasury from Her own estates.  Therefore the taxpayer gets a dividend of £60m from the Queen.

While the cost of the monarchy has risen (for some good reasons such as the significant state visit to the United States last year), Government spending has rocketed even faster.

Answer 8

Probably around 1/3 my tax bill.

Reason

War

Your queen can't make war, Bush did --------- twice.

===============

Life is so simple, but we insist on making it complicated

Confucius

551 - 479 BC

===============

Peace

Jim

.

Answer 9

The 66p per annum per person, includes the civil list, which is money given to a number of members of the Royal Family. It also includes the upkeep of the Royal Palaces - Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, St James's Palace, Clarence House, Sandringham, Balmoral etc. Then there is security, the royal flight, the royal train and foreign engagements etc etc.

I am sure a President as Head of State would be equally expensive.

Whilst Social Mobility may not be perfect in Britain, America is hardly the shining example of social mobility that it likes to present to the world.

hhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7256...

The class system in America is just as bad as Britain, if not worse with it's Ivy League Elites and select groups.

Indeed US men who were born into poor US families in the 1950s had a 42% chance of staying poor - a worse outcome than in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the UK, where the comparable percentages range from 25% to 30%.

US social mobility rates are in the same range as countries such as Mexico, Brazil or Pakistan.

Furthermore the poorest in America have less access to a Welfare State or Healthcare than they do in Europe and the UK.

Americans seem to think there is no social mobility in Britain, when in fact there is just as much, if not more than in America, look at people like Sir Alan Sugar, born and raised in a Council Flat in Hackney or numerous other British Entrepreneurs.

Britain is a very creative and productive country and there is increasing social mobility.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk...

Answer 10

Well, the Iraq war is about $46,000 for a family of four, alone, so I'd say a lot more than 66p.

Answer 11

The president of the US makes approximately 400K a year so that would be less than 1/3 of a penny for each of us.

Answer 12

Neither of them is worth a toss - A complete waste of money xx

Answer 13

Your British/German queen costs far more than you think. Not only the Civil List payments to her but how other huge costs have beeb steadily transferred to government departments to make her seem less expensive, but also the cost that no Brit - Welsh, Scot, Irishman, or Englishman can EVER become head of state. Class divisions exist on bothe sides of the pond, but they are much more rigid in the UK: what cost might this have on the young aspiring for higher things? No, they are told: you are not born to do THAT, you may only do THIS. The Civil List is a strange thing. It was started by George III in a deal to swap the moneys/management from all his lands for essentially and ALLOWANCE. This is strange because the idea that the queen owns most of the UK, even the seabed, is a bit medieval for a modern, egalitarian country.

Answer 14

Most of their sanity.

Answer 15

A lot more than the Queen costs us.

Boo - he gets paid 400k a year salary BUT you also have the costs of running the White House (which must run into millions with staffing costs, furnishings etc), his expenses, his security, his fleet of expensive Limos and cars, his chaffeurs, his private jets, his lavish banquets etc etc.

I'd imagine it costs you WAAAYY more than it costs us for the Royals.

And Bamford is spot on.  Some of the wealthiest people in Britain come from poor backgrounds.  There is just as much, if not more, social mobility in the UK as there is in the US.  and at least we look after our poor with healthcare etc.