Must Government Stanch The Erosion of its Middle Class?

[robert l. bentham]

err oops they're talking about saudi government which has a king in charge. surely there are no parallels...

But to see the symptoms of this disease afflicting a wealthy nation, a member of the G-20, one aspiring to provide solutions to promote the economic and financial development of other countries? To see that disease racking a country currently leading the world in the dispatching of humanitarian aid, according to UN findings? To see it in a country that readily sends aid and assistance and makes donations to other states even as her own people suffer from poverty and unemployment? It borders on the unbelievable.
The latest reports point to an accelerating erosion of this indispensable social class, something that will put future living standards under strain, if not worse. The Saudi government must acknowledge the reality of this problem, and address it in a transparent manner.


Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/business/2012/08/the-squeezed-middle-saudi-arabias-erosion-of-the-working-class.html#ixzz28HDhVtTh

 

[cecilia]

Over the last few years, Saudis have suffered from predatory markets coupled with lax regulation that combined to destroy their life savings in rotten real estate deals, poor investments like SAWA telecom company, and the collapse of the stock market. Exacerbating the situation are a cluster of problems including excessive bank debt, inflation, unemployment, the absence of equal opportunity, deepening favoritism, and financial and administrative corruption. All this has thrown the average Saudi off balance and plunged him into debt.

gee, imagine that!!!