MADDOG'S LAIR
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Saudi Arabia will not create a new vibrant economy

7/4/2016

Comments

 
Young Saudis on the spot as prince plans to expand private sector - FT.com

​Saudis don't work.

​More.
"For decades, young Saudis have grown accustomed to walking into easy public sector jobs, cushioned by decent salaries and benefits paid for by the kingdom’s petrodollars.

It is a phenomenon that has bred a reluctance to take on private sector work, which entails longer hours and fewer perks. The result is that expatriates — who account for a third of Saudi Arabia’s 30m population — fill about 85 per cent of private sector jobs."

Saudi's don't want to work, don't know how to work, and simply won't work. What they want are sinecures, high pay, low effort, great perks, you know, exactly like no real job anywhere. The Saudis have the biggest bluest blue model of any nation. They seem to have seen a video of a Silicone Valley tech shop with its bounce house, axe throwing, and romper rooms, and thought that was the "work" part, not realizing the people there still had to produce new innovative things to justify their 6 figure salaries. 

"But Mohammed bin Salman, the ambitious deputy crown prince, wants that to change. If he succeeds, millions of Saudis face a rude wake-up as the young prince attempts to implement a bold transformation plan that envisages shrinking the civil service and having half of all Saudis seeking work in the private sector by 2020.

While analysts agree that radical reform is needed to modernize the sclerotic, oil-dependent economy, the risk is it that forging ahead with social change could spark popular resentment."

You mean like in the movie Trading Places? Naw, they will love working long hours, low pay, under the thumb of demanding bean counters, and bosses. They do not understand what is coming, neither the workers, nor the House of Saud. This will become the most Postal event ever. Let that sink in.

I for one doubt the resentment will last that long, I think they should be able to wash that out of Saudis within 2 to 3 generations, tops! But that won't help much if you need to have an economy within a fortnight, as the House of Saud needs. And just because Saudis are passive-aggressive in all else, does not mean they will be passive-aggressive with the phase-in of myriad new uncomfortable social changes! Right.

"A central tenet of Prince Mohammed’s “National Transformation Plan,” which was unveiled last month, is to reduce unemployment from 11.7 per cent down to 9 per cent by 2020 and 7 per cent over the following decade. Estimates of youth unemployment run as high as 30 per cent."

This sounds like the Obama "Speedy Gonzales" plan for reducing unemployment. It made for a pretty anemic recovery, I am not sure Saudi can handle a slow, but steady as she goes 2 decades of waiting on this new economy. 

"To tackle the issues, the NTP has the ambitious target of creating 450,000 private sector jobs by 2020 through the expansion of non-oil sectors, such as mining and tourism. But at the same time it plans to decrease the civil service by 20 per cent, as part of its aim of reducing the dominant role of the state.

Stefan Herthog, an associate professor at the London School of Economics, said that implies an “unprecedented reduction of government employment” at a time when the private sector job market is struggling in the wake of the slump in oil prices."


Tourism?! For what sand dune surfing? I suspect the Herthog (killer name if he could only swap the "e" for a "u") is on to something. Cutting the public sector jobs will be easy. Getting the remaining public sector workers to do more work, well, much less likely. And the entire private sector thing, I don't see it. Sand surfing? What?

And I honestly cannot imagine the problems of hiring young Saudis to run hotels, clean rooms, do laundry, provide services to the infidels with money. Yeah, not seeing that. 

You might go to Scotland and pay to watch men in skirts throw telephone poles around, but why would anyone go to Saudi to watch beardo men in white dresses throw hissy fits? And no beer! Or corn! No hissy fit is watchable without a beer and corn.

"Abdullah al-Alami, a Saudi writer, says the government will need to legislate to improve working conditions for Saudis and make the private sector more conducive to nationals."

Hahahahahahahahahaha! By more conductive he means less productive, with more benefits, and less work, you know, more like Saudi public service work. But employers can't make money hiring people under those conditions, so, the government will need to subsidize the workers, which kind of defeats the purpose of the shift.

"The labour ministry is also studying implementing a new version of nitaqat — the labour regulations that have introduced effective penalties and incentives for businesses to hire more Saudis.

But businesses say they are already struggling with these closely-monitored national employment quotas.

One foreign financial services company, which employs seven executives, including three Saudis, needs to hire another seven Saudis as it expands to keep in line with current regulations. 

“It is a hell of a tax on operations,” said the company’s manager, who declined to be identified."

Hahahahahahahahahaha!!! Hiring a Saudi is a tax! This will go swimmingly. As this is fazed in expect more businesses to simply look for more profitable locations elsewhere. If the Nitaqat was effective, it would not be causing companies to struggle. But it isn't, and it does.

"'The real issue is finding qualified Saudis, and then working to keep them, because any with marketable skills know they can jump ship at the drop of a hat,” he said. “If they have any quarrel, even something small, then they will just go.”

While some Saudis are keen to join the private sector, especially white-collar jobs, many lack the skills needed to compete with cheaper foreign workers."

I is like a affirmative action system where the majority are the affirmative action hires, but only a tiny few have any marketable skills. The value of the good workers is high, the value of the rest is zero. Both end up being overpaid. How can businesses exist in this environment? And to the extent they do, costs are extremely high, meaning that government must pay for this somehow, perhaps through a much slower economy, and lower tax returns.

The House of Saud will get a nice economics lesson out of this, and pretty much nothing else.

"The conservative kingdom’s education system has been dominated by religious learning for decades."

So, if you are looking for a religious zealot in a white dress wearing black shoes, who can rock back and forth really fast while chanting "Death to America." You're in business, otherwise you are shite out of luck. You have to hire a boat load of these nitwits anyway, which means your product costs go up, and the economy suffers! Booyah! 

"'If there should really be substantial reductions in the public sector, one key political question would be how the losers in this process would be compensated,” said Mr Herthog."

Herthog, baby, I don't think you get the gist of what's happening. The House of Saud cannot afford to continue paying all of these oil royalty consumers, they need to GET A JOB, not get a welfare sinecure. The point is to cut them free, and have them make money on their own.

My plan is easy: Welfare 0, corporate taxes 0, ditch all taxes except for a retail consumption tax, cut the public sector by 60% over 5 years, and automate every possible remaining job. If it works, great, if not, hand out camels, and chase the unemployed out into the desert. OK, just kidding. Try them for murder and behead them. Kidding.

Oh, and remind me again on why we still have such free and easy visa rules with the Saudis, and the other Middle East kingdoms? This is going to create serious problems, and we really don't want these people coming here. Does anyone really want 5,000 Postal Saudis here for an American Vacation? 
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

    Author

    Maddog

      Blog Subscription

    Subscribe to Blog

    Categories

    All
    1000-ways-to-die
    Abortion
    Amazon
    America
    Antisemitism
    Anti-semitism
    Bible
    Blogging
    Blue-model
    Book-links
    Booze
    Bus
    Cancer
    Children
    China
    China-ccp
    China-gdp
    China-ghost-cities
    China-ponzi
    Climate-change
    Coast-guardrescue-swimmer
    Cold-war
    Concealed-carry
    Constitution
    Cool-stuff
    Corruption
    Creative-destruction
    Crime
    Crisis-change
    Dead-guy-vote
    Dead-pool
    Death-of-the-pc
    Declaration-of-independence
    Deflation
    Democrat
    Demographic-decline
    Diet
    Earth-hour
    Ecommerce
    E-commerce
    Economic-change
    Economy
    Education
    End-of-history
    Energy
    Environmentalism
    Epa
    Eric-barker
    Europe
    Executive-outcomes
    F35
    Faith
    Family
    Fascists
    Financial-irresponsibility
    Financial-times
    Firearms
    First-world-problems
    Fitness
    Flight-to-security
    Food
    Fourth-turning
    Free-eye-exam
    French
    Funny
    Gdp
    Gdp-usa-vs-britain
    Gdp-usa-vs-germany
    Gdp-usa-vs-sweden
    Generational-theft
    Global-warming
    Government-incompetence
    Government-we-deserve
    Happiness
    Health
    Helicopter-parent
    Hell
    Holocene
    Honor
    Housing-affordability
    I-love-beaver
    Imf
    Immigration
    Independence-day
    Inefficiency
    Inflation
    Innovation
    Intelligence
    Intergenerational-conflict
    International-relations
    Investing
    Iran
    Iraq-war
    Islamic-reformation
    Italian-travel
    Japan
    Jodie-foster-effect
    Kayaking
    Keynesian-economist
    Kurdistan
    Law
    Leave-nato
    Leave-the-un
    Light-rail
    Maddog-story
    Marine
    Marriage
    Media
    Medical-insurance
    Medicine
    Middle-east
    Military
    Military-waste
    Money
    Monopoly
    Nanny-college
    News
    New-seasons
    Nirvana-is-another-name-for-hell
    North-korea
    Nukes
    Obama-doctrine
    Oil
    Oregon
    Organic
    Parenting
    Partition
    Pearl
    Pensions
    Peter-principle
    Police
    Politicians
    Portland
    Portlandia
    Portland-transit
    Predictions
    President-bush
    President-feckless-odither
    President-obama
    Psychology
    Race-huckster
    Rape
    Recession
    Recipe
    Replace-the-un
    Republican
    Research-studies-are-always-wrong
    Reviews
    Russia
    Salafism
    Sanctions
    Science
    Science-versus-faith
    Self-defense
    Self-drive-vehicle
    Sex
    Shale-oil
    Shia
    Sjw
    Sleeper
    Smart-growth
    Socialism
    Sovereignty
    Sport
    Sunni
    Supreme-court
    Syria
    Tax
    Technology
    Terrorism
    The-fed
    The-house-of-saud
    The-last-economic-superpower
    Therapy
    Trade
    Transit
    True-believer
    Tvfilm-review
    Un
    Union
    Urban-planning
    Urinals-of-note
    Venezuela
    Voter-fraud
    Wages
    Wahhabism
    War
    War-crimes
    Weird
    Weird-science
    Welfare
    Whole-foods
    Work



    RSS Feed

​Maddog's Lair is copyright 2016-2018 by Mark Sherman. Please feel free to quote from this site provided you link back to the original article.
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact