Saudi Struggles as Foreign Workers Leave

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

Saudi Arabia encouraged foreign workers to leave – and the resulting exodus has left the country struggling

I remember an older report about Saudis having to learn to work... Must be hard.

[John Foote + 1,135]

Very complicated. Saudis, by and large, do not work in the private sector. Partly a wage thing, partly a productivity and ease of business for the employer. And starting July of 17, there is a monthly fee/tax on expats. In theory borne by the employer, raising the costs of an expat.

Also, expats aren't expected to be on prayer break multiple times a day. The Saudi work force is typically five days a week, not six days a week.

Saudis can work. But you have large trades where they aren't involved. For example Construction is huge in the Saudi, in the US it's a well paying job that doesn't take a college education, but it takes some time to learn. And now you have them jumping to supervise something they don't know. It leads to some farcical leadership. And there is a strong master/servant culture there. No one wants to be a servant. Expats resent it too, but take the money and deal with it.

Saudis do need to transition to doing their own work. The country will come out ahead. The threat to the Kingdom is not Houthies, or Iranians. It's internal as the country needs to shift of the petro-dollar dole. 

 

[Sukumar Ray + 52]

15 hours ago, John Foote said:

Very complicated. Saudis, by and large, do not work in the private sector. Partly a wage thing, partly a productivity and ease of business for the employer. And starting July of 17, there is a monthly fee/tax on expats. In theory borne by the employer, raising the costs of an expat.

Also, expats aren't expected to be on prayer break multiple times a day. The Saudi work force is typically five days a week, not six days a week.

Saudis can work. But you have large trades where they aren't involved. For example Construction is huge in the Saudi, in the US it's a well paying job that doesn't take a college education, but it takes some time to learn. And now you have them jumping to supervise something they don't know. It leads to some farcical leadership. And there is a strong master/servant culture there. No one wants to be a servant. Expats resent it too, but take the money and deal with it.

Saudis do need to transition to doing their own work. The country will come out ahead. The threat to the Kingdom is not Houthies, or Iranians. It's internal as the country needs to shift of the petro-dollar dole. 

 

Switching from petrodollar to different currency will be a disaster for the kingdom. Petrodollar switch may also switch the regime. DC will never allow it to happen and any effort doing that will be dealt very ruthlessly. DC built this dream empire of petrodollar system with lot of efforts and dollars going into it building its proven and robust skeleton and never ever allow any damn country to just walk away from this dream land. Saddam dared it and paid the price with his head. That is one side of the story, other side of the story is that under current geopolitical situations, only petrodollar system can provide comfort and stability in the market. Rise of China is gradually changing the centre of gravity of the power axis and in the days to come, it will depend on the attitude of China and its ability to command leadership amongst its followers. As of now China's aggressive stance has only scared its neighbors . Confusion about China's sudden rise and its ability to handle fame and glory has confused other countries. Experts  predict that China will eventually collapse under its own weight like it happened to former USSR. Chinese economy has already started shrinking and its a non-democratic authoritarian regime which has higher probability of causing discontentment to its citizens over time . People of Hong Kong have not yet forgotten the taste of democracy and free market lifestyle and that is a major cause of concern to China . China's judicious handling of Taiwan can prove to be a turning point for establishing itself as a rising global leader or a bullying dictator.

[John Foote + 1,135]

16 hours ago, Sukumar Ray said:

Switching from petrodollar to different currency will be a disaster for the kingdom. 

Yes, however if they continue their deficit spending, at some point they will be forced off linking the SAR to the US $. It would allow them to pay their bills in riyals.

Of course that would kick off a multitude of other problems. They'd still sell oil in dollars, just pay many of their bills in riyals.

Saudi Aramco is now talking about floating large bonds. They are on the path to being a debtor nation. Still years to go, but unless some fundamentals happen, KSA will become a net debtor nation one day. That's not the end of the world, just a different world. And once they owe, so much easier to pay off with money they print. Can't do that to the outside world, but there is no shortage of internal KSA commerce where decoupling the Riyal would, in the short run, relieve pressures.