Replies to post #2126 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

This speaks to the point of Nate Silver’s write-up (#msg-59402749) that bladerunner panned on this board. Interesting that the video from The Economist makes the same argument about bribing the populace, although The Economist considers this of lesser importance than Silver does.

[DewDiligence]

Saudi Arabia Boosts Bribes—Oops, I Meant Benefits

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704608504576208764057863034.html

›MARCH 19, 2011
By ANGUS MCDOWALL

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah announced a new round of lavish public spending and enhanced benefits for Saudis, but hinted at stern measures against any would-be protesters in the conservative Islamic kingdom.

The head of the world's largest oil exporter said in a series of royal orders Friday that he was introducing a minimum wage and unemployment benefit for Saudi nationals, creating 60,000 military jobs at the Interior Ministry, addressing a chronic housing shortage with a building drive and creating a new government department to tackle corruption. He also announced more than a billion Saudi rials of spending on religious projects.

Speaking live on state television, he thanked Saudis for staying loyal to the regime after they shunned a recent call for demonstrations issued on Facebook.

"You hit falsehood with truth and betrayal with loyalty and solidness," he said in remarks addressed to the Saudi people, which were later published in English on the state news agency.

He told members of the armed forces they were "the shield of this country and the striking hand against anyone tempted to undermine its security and stability."

Saudi Arabia has mostly escaped the demonstrations that have hit countries across the Arab world, but this week it signalled its concern at the region's unrest by sending 1,000 troops to Bahrain to help its ally, ruled by a Sunni royal family, quash a rebellion by the Shiite-majority population.

A week ago several hundred Shiites also staged protests in Saudi Arabia's oil-rich Eastern Province, adjacent to Bahrain, leading to arrests. However, a "day of rage" called by Facebook activists failed to materialize and the ruling al Saud family retain the support of both the clerical establishment and the country's tribes—two of the most powerful social forces in the country.

The measures appeared to be aimed at easing the economic travails of younger Saudis, who face a high rate of unemployment, but they didn't address the demands of Shiite protesters and liberal activists for democratic reforms.

Instead King Abdullah used his latest display of largesse to reward groups loyal to the ruling family and fend off potential economic grievances among the wider population.

King Abdullah said the government would pay 2,000 Saudi rials ($533) a month to job seekers, set a minimum wage for Saudi citizens of 3,000 rials a month, build half a million housing units at a cost of 250 billion rials and increase housing loans by two thirds to 500,000 rials.

The rules and hierarchy of a new national commission to fight corruption, whose head will carry ministerial rank, should be set within three months, the king said.

The creation of new military posts at the Interior Ministry comes after the department took a leading role in crushing an insurgency by al Qaeda in the middle of the last decade. The ministry already has an existing force of 40,000 soldiers tasked with protecting key infrastructure such as oil facilities.

In an apparent gesture to the al Saud's close allies in the kingdom's religious establishment, who have backed the royal family with fatwas against protests, King Abdullah also pledged half a billion rials for mosque construction, 200 million rials for Quranic teaching, 300 million rials to support a ministry of Islamic affairs and another 200 million rials to build local headquarters for the religious police.

He also decreed that the country's press should not criticize senior clerics, whom he said had confronted "the voice of division and advocates of sedition."‹