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Wait what? How has his family been winning for quite some time?

Well, they ruled for nearly 1000 years. The last 100 years might just be a fluke local minima and they still might recover and rule the galaxy...

Classic problem. Gotta tweak the inputs in a big way to see if you can't get out of the trough. Perfect time for him to become something fun and interesting like maybe an unironic Posadist or one of the weirder sedevacantists.

You assume that they haven't ruled the last 100 years as well

He's able to get by on his family name, which is a marked downgrade from their long rule over most of Europe, seems to have set him up a fairly comfortable and easy-going life. That sounds like winning to me! If my country needs a new ambassador to the Pope, I'll be first in line!

Rare praise for cushy government jobs and low aspirations on HN. I'm here for it, don't get me wrong!

Since when was attaining the rank of ambassador and being appointed to the Vatican ‘low aspirations’?

Even the lowliest ambassador enjoys some authority, and much higher formal rank, than pretty much every non-unicorn startup founder.

Ambassador to a country with no currency or trade or airport. In the US it’s a meme that political donors get to be ambassador to one of the easy countries. Doesn’t get much easier than the Vatican.

> a country with no currency or trade or airport

though more involvement in international affairs than a lot of countries with all of the above

Involvement? They pledge their zero troops and threaten to withhold their zero dollars of trade? Maybe restrict movement over their zero square miles of air space? Is it early modern period day on HN what is going on????

In the days of Franz Joseph Karl, Habsburgs didn't get ambassadorial appointments; they gave them.

His recipe for winning: be born into the Habsburg family

It is a relative downgrade, in the sense that Europe was a lot worse of a place to live in the past. But I’m not sure, I think I’d rather be a rich guy in modern Europe than some king. If you are a rich guy in modern Europe:

* You get modern medical care

* Fancy cars

* Killing you isn’t a major political objective for a bunch of different countries

* You can probably hang out with American celebrities if they have the time

* Better food

By that token most people who have ever had the title of King, Shah, Emperor, Chief, Bwana, Pharoah, etc. would trade me my weight in gold to enjoy my flea-free mattress and working refrigerator.

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