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Comment by eudox | Hacker News Reader

It gets worse,

>90 percent of government revenues are from oil; 70 percent of working Saudis are employed by the government

I don't think they've worked out the problem of stable succession either, given that every change in King has been from a brother to another[0], rather than to a son.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Saudi_Arabia#Kings_of_...

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A possible fix is to start investing, but it may be too late. If I remember correctly I think investing for profit is a gray area in Islam, but Kuwait did it and if I remember correctly they use to have more returns from their investments then they did on oil and paid every citizen a base salary from it (until Saddam invaded and they had to cash out).

Best i recall, there is some issues with lending and interest.

After all ol' Muhammad was a merchant by trade...

Trade and investing is permissible in Islam. However interest and derivative financial instruments are strictly prohibited for various reasons, one of which is trying to avoid "renters' economy.

Succession is especially complicated since the King may take any number of wives, meaning there are a lot of brothers in line.

2006 decree makes it such that next King is elected by a counsel of Princes.

The Cost of Rights

http://www.amazon.com/The-Cost-Rights-Liberty-Depends/dp/039...

is an interesting read on this topic. It basically talks about how taxes are necessary and these movements to eliminate taxes completely are completely off base. I would argue that a sufficiently extreme distribution of wealth makes democracy impossible and the "rights" that the Saudis afford their people are not "rights" at all in any meaningful sense but rather just a way of placating people so they can hold onto control of the oil.

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