Saudi Arabia faces ‘economic bomb’ and hikes gas prices 50%:

The Saudi’s have lived high on the hog for many years or should I say living high on the petro. Now it seems that their petro bubble has burst and some of them are having a hard time adjusting financially.

People in this world have to remember one cold hard fact. Whatever goes up must come down.  It is the law of gravity. That applies to everything and everyone. In some instances it comes around sooner than expected but everything eventually does come down.

Take a look back through history; all of the countries, empires, people and like that had to pay the Piper at one time or another.  Nothing lasts forever. In all of the riches, power and arrogance, they never thought it would happen to them.

In my opinion, I think the USA is headed in the same direction if there are not some drastic changes made very soon.

When a person has a little humility and they take a dive, sometimes they get a little sympathy from their fellow man. When some arrogant fools take a dive and are sinking, the only life line they are thrown is an anchor instead of a life jacket.

Many of the Saudi people and others that have enjoyed all of their extreme wealth for decades are now feeling the pinch with the downward spiral in oil prices.  Should we fell sorry for the? Not me.

Is it hard to believe that the Saudi people are lining up at gas stations to fill their tanks while the price is tolerable.

In the Land of Excess it seems that the bottom has dropped out of their fairy tale story. Cinderella  has lost her slipper and the prince’s coach has turned in a pumpkin; or something like that.

Where else in the world but in Dubai, one of Saudi’s neighbors,  would anyone build an in door ski slope where the temperature sometimes reaches 120 degrees outside?  The Saudis were making plans to build one of their own not to get shown up by their neighbor.

This little package cost the 400 million dollars.

This is in doors FOLKS.  Just the maintenance on this place has to be astronomical.

I wonder if the sand dude who paid 14 million dollars for a license plate because it had the # 1 on it regrets his extravagant purchase.  I doubt it.

Saeed Abdel Ghaffar Khouri proudly holds the license plate he paid  52.2 million dirhams (14.2 million dollars) for an Abu Dhabi license plate bearing the single number “1”.

75% of the Saudi government’s budget comes from their black liquid gold.  The price of oil has crashed from over $100 a barrel in 2014 to around $36 currently. Some experts predict that it may not get back to where it was for many years. One man’s poison is another mans pleasure!!

CNN MONEY

Here are some of the perks Saudis receive:

-Heavily subsidized gas (It used to be 16 cents a liter. Now it’s gone up to 24 cents.)
-Free health care
-Free schooling
-Subsidized water and electricity
-No income tax
-Public pensions
-Nearly 90% of Saudis are government employees 
-Often higher pay for government jobs than private sector ones
-Unemployment benefits (started in 2011 in reaction to the Arab Spring)
-A “development fund” that provides interest-free loans to help families buy homes and start businesses.

There has been some gossip circulating in the desert that the citizens of Saudi may have to start paying taxes to keep the government going.

CNN

How much is Saudi Arabia worth?