Yeah this has been brought up a few times, I started a thread on it a few months back I think
A bit like MTVN said, against them in principle, but in practice I think as a result of tourism they're quite beneficial. I think we'd be a lot worse off without them. I found
this which is a blog explaining 'the real cost of the royal family'. I found it quite interesting.
In an ideal world they wouldn't exist, but then in an ideal world everyone would be equal and elitism on the whole would be non-existent.