system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Museums and other places of historical significance should be funded no matter the profit they make

Was having a little debate with my friends about this. They don't really care about monuments and museums and said that if they didn't generate any tourism/money then they would be fine with knocking them down \(mentioned Stonehenge specifically\). Even places such as Buckingham palace they would be fine with destroying if they didn't generate money.

I obviously didn't agree with this, although it seems to be quite a popular opinion. I thought that regardless of their profit they are culturally significant \- can you imagine a UK without castles or Stonehenge? It's our identity.

Edit: Just to clarify I'll rewrite the statement here \-

**Places of proven historical or cultural significance should be funded if they can't make a profit.**

I can't keep replying guys! Too much. Feel like most of the comments are to me not clarifying enough.

* **I don't think that we should keep all museums running, only the ones that can be proven to hold significance in some way.**
* **This is a hypothetical situation \- many places break even or even make a profit nowadays.**

Anyway, change my view!
gpt
Buckingham palace is a grade 1 listed building, and Stonehenge is a UNESCO world heritage site. This gives them significant legal protection no matter who owns or runs them. UNESCO sites are protected under international treaties. Destroying world heritage sites is actually a war crime, one which people are currently trying to bring ISIS to justice for. No matter who owns or funds them, you can't destroy them. We already have plenty of grade 1 listed buildings and even world heritage sites in private ownership, that are perfectly safe and well maintained.

We might not want to publicly fund something if there isn't a good public market for it, or the body running it isn't doing a good job. It might make sense to hand it over to a private collection, who can either mothball it, offer a better run visiter site, or imagine a different business model to fund its upkeep.