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I'm an American who's in favor of the monarchy, not that it matters much in the sense that as an American, I can never have any influence on whether it stays or goes. Nevertheless, I thought I'd state my view.

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I'm not in favor of it because of tourism dollars. Nor do I think that most of the British who say they are in favor of it for that reason really are in favor of it for that reason. I think they have emotional reasons for being in favor of it but fall back on the "tourism dollars" reason because it sounds reasonable and logical. But I find yours and Betsabe's argument of "the immorality of one baby can be born into such privilege, from birthright alone, when 1/3 of babies born in the UK are born into poverty" and "can't justify a baby born into such luxury" just as unconvincing.

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My country is a democratic republic. But do you think we don't have babies born into privilege and luxury while others are born poor? Apparently our poverty rate is not as high as yours, but 22 percent of our children are poor. And the babies of actors, actresses, athletes are born into luxury. You may feel that actors and athletes are more deserving of their riches than are royalty, but I don't. I don't feel that actors and athletes do one damn thing to deserve their millions. Then we do still have our Americans who inherited their wealth, not having done anything themselves to earn it, whose babies are born into luxury and privilege. A democratic republic doesn't change these things.

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Yet I'm not really bitter about our wealthy and our privileged. I don't often quote Jesus, but yes, the guy said some things worth saying, and one of the those was "The poor you will always have with you." Knocking the actors and the athletes and those lucky enough to be born into wealth down, and taking all of their money, and redistributing it, will not eliminate our poor. It would be a drop in the bucket. Nor would eliminating royalty eliminate your poor.

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According to the latest polls, 66% of the British believe that Britain is better off as a monarchy. Do you have any hard figures to back your claim that non-Brits within Britain favor the monarchy more than the British-born? Or that young people favor it less? You say "from my experience" most of the UK population feel boredom and bitterness towards the monarchy, and I think that's exactly what it is, only your experience, as people tend to attract like people.

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I don't wish I weren't American and I don't want to live anywhere but the US and I don't wish we had a monarchy. But I appreciate some countries for what they are and how they differ from us, and I know how easy it is for us Americans to be unaware of how our country is perceived by non-Americans. I think perhaps you don't appreciate how your country is perceived by those who aren't British. The monarchy is a defining characteristic of your country, it is very tied up with your national identity in the minds of so many people who aren't British, it's what sets you apart from other European countries. And eliminating it won't solve the problem of poverty and it won't make a classless society (WE don't have a classless society), but it will make you less distinctive and destroy some of your identity.

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As I said, I'm an American so in a sense what I think doesn't matter, but I hoped you could appreciate my viewpoint.