Is oil wealth trickled down to the ordinary citizens in Saudi Arabia, or is it all State money?

Question

I know the royalty are richer than god, but I'm wondering about whether the oil industry benefits the ordinary people of the oil-producing regions of the middle east, as owners as opposed to employees in whatever capacity. Just curious.

Answer 1

Saudi citizens have never benefited from the oil that is their country. You see all land is property of the royal family by default for some unknown reason, then the citizens get to buy lands from real estate companies. If one should find oil under their house, the oil immeadiately goes to the government. It's true that the presence of sufficient amounts of oil helped reduce oil prices there (about 45 cents per gallon), but all other aspects of life have considerably gone through the roof price-wise, especially food, drugs and services. The only benefit that people get from the existence of oil besides its low prices is that they get to work in the petroleum industry. However no citizens own oil fields or companies or have shares in them, it all goes to the government.

Answer 2

Yes, the Saudis do benefit...but only Saudis, not the foreigners. It is a racist, narrow minded society, go figure.

Answer 3

yes, the citizens do benefit, that's why some have very high salaries. also.. the royal family is not richer than God.