Today’s advocates of doing away with the monarchy are relatively weak. The Socialist Party is too small to wield real clout, and the Netherlands’ Republican Society makes a drowsy and generally fumbling impression. That latter observation need hardly come as a surprise: why, after all, would one put any serious effort into opposing performance art? Perhaps because the remuneration for that performance art is a bit uncommon. The future king of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, receives a tax-free annual salary of over $1 million, as well as a $5.7 million allowance “for the costs of personnel and material expenses.” His wife, Maxima, also receives a minimal tax-free salary of $425,000 and an additional $750,000 or so as compensation for incidental expenses. Such sums are a bit overdone in a day in which the Netherlands has imposed drastic cuts on government subsidies for other forms of theater. It does seem old-fashioned of the royal family to try and slip the leash of market mechanisms and meritocracy.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 20:39:30 +0000
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