Wasting food in Saudi arabia and gulf

[faye]

if it is good for the goose, it is good for the gander. but i am not a muslim, per se.

[ScimitarXEdge]

then you have no idea what you're talking about, per se

[faye]

so you like to pretend.

[ScimitarXEdge]

well clearly you don't since you just contradicted yourself

errr didn't think this through did you?

[Karachi]

For someone who has lived there you have a very black/white view of what goes on there which reflects a very novice and externalized viewpoint. I can't confirm or deny the authenticity of your stories; I can say that the unrealistic narrowiness in them makes me question just to what extent you're familiar.

For one thing I can say as a fact; is that most Saudi Arabians are not wealthy at all, the people who are wealthy are a small segment of Saudi Arabia, who are the elite class mainly people who are either related to the Sauds and/or close compatriots, Saudi society is largely feudal so it maintains it's wealth/power within those groups.

If you've lived in Saudi Arabia there are Arab beggars in the streets, not exactly a reflection of a wealthy people.

Only people who either have never been to Saudi Arabia have this view that the streets are paved with gold.

saudi arabian is a large country, there are many different kinds of tribes, yes i agree there are rural people who live there that can be classified as poor though most saudis living in the cities like riyadh or jeddah are middle class or rich, the beggers you see some times are mostly from other countries, and some divorced saudi women can beg sometimes, but overall i would say 30-40% of saudis can be classified as wealthy, if you dont believe me dont, i suggest you visit cities like Riyadh, Jeddah or other gulf cities like Abu dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait city etc.... some of things you will see there will shock you for sure, the culture in the whole region is based on greed and materialism and obviously wasting money is part of materialism.

[faye]

if muslim in arabic, means person who submits to the will of god, then i could probably pass that test. if islam in arabic, means peace, then i am also partial to that. so i think my voice is as valid as yours.

[ScimitarXEdge]

Karachi let's do this in raw numbers.

$622.5 billion (2010 est.)

that's Saudi GDP

this is the Saudi population

26,131,703

this is the Saudi Non-National population

5,576,076 non-nationals (July 2011 est.)

ok so we have about 21,000,000 Native Saudis.

That equals to to about 30,000 dollars per capita income; if 40% of Saudis were wealthy as you say, why is their per capita income less than the United States?

[ScimitarXEdge]

if muslim in arabic, means person who submits to the will of god, then i could probably pass that test. if islam in arabic, means peace, then i am also partial to that. so i think my voice is as valid as yours.

You're just trying to play word games now; simply put you haven't a clue what you're talking

by the way can you please stop side railing threads just because you hate seeing Toramana getting his head stomped. if you have an issue ...mope about it elsewhere.

[Karachi]

Karachi let's do this in raw numbers.

$622.5 billion (2010 est.)

that's Saudi GDP

this is the Saudi population

26,131,703

this is the Saudi Non-National population

5,576,076 non-nationals (July 2011 est.)

ok so we have about 21,000,000 Native Saudis.

That equals to to about 30,000 dollars per capita income; if 40% of Saudis were wealthy as you say, why is their per capita income less than the United States?

dontforget saudi arabia has zero tax on everything, so even if they are earning less then US, they are saving much much more and the average salary of saudis is much higher then of indian/pakistani working there.

also other gulf countries like UAE, nearly 80% of arabs are rich there, just look at their lifestyle, Saudis are not far behind in following that sort of lifestyle

[ScimitarXEdge]

dontforget saudi arabia has zero tax on everything, so even if they are earning less then US, they are saving much much more and the average salary of saudis is much higher then of indian/pakistani working there.

also other gulf countries like UAE, nearly 80% of arabs are rich there, just look at their lifestyle, Saudis are not far behind in following that sort of lifestyle

Ok taxes withstanding; explain how they can have a 30,000 per capita income bracket, if 40% of people are wealthy?

In America Wealthy means people who make 100,000 dollars annually or more. if 40% of Saudi Arabia made 100,000. Then

that would be 8,400,000 X 100,000 =840,000,000,000

that's more than Saudi Arabia's GDP; please explain how that is possible? I'm using the bare minimum standard of wealth in capitalist economics here.

[Karachi]

^ well that was my estimation, maybe its close to 20-25% i dont know, but one thing is for sure, there are enough rich saudis and nearly all of them love to waste their wealth, much more then a average wealthy american would. Just go visit the place you would see what i mean, i mean we already know how people in UAE live, Saudi arabia is not too different. Those guys are the most spoiled people you will ever see, just go search the net.

[ScimitarXEdge]

Karachi my mom's from the Middle East (Yemen), I've been there and I've seen both sides of the coin. The really destitute and the really well off.


The point here is not to deny that spoiled and morally degenerate Arabs from the Gulf exist. but to expose the fallacy in your claim that it is culture of the common people.


The fact that anytime I present Evidential or Quantifiable data you keep adjusting your statistics; it says a lot.

Fine let's do your 20-25% estimation then

20% of 21 Million Natives (excluding 5 million non natives) = 4,200,000

now 4,200,000 X 100,000 =420,000,000,000 USD

so 20% of KSA control 2/3rds (approximately) of Saudi Wealth according to this stat.

but this would mean that 200,000,000 is shared by 16,800,000

so 200,000,000 USD/16,800,000 = 12,000 USD (approximately) Ok

now let's see what the mean Per capita income is based on a 20 % Wealth with minimum measure of Wealth at 100,000 USD.

so (100,000+12000)/2= 56,000 USD per capita

that's almost double the per capita that it actually is.

Your argument doesnt add up.

[Karachi]

^ this data your giving is not proving anything, because not all countries are the same, for example the prices of things like housing, rents, salaries etc... and pretty much every thing else is different from America, so you have take in to account all these things. I am not saying my figures are right, i never claimed that, but all i am saying is that there are lots of rich saudis out there, I have lived there so i know, ofcourse saudi is not as rich as UAE or Kuwait, but still is very well off. Heck even my whole family became so spoiled living there thats its not even funny, i regret the things we use to there there now, thats why i am saying these things

also by cultural i dont mean that (arab) culture is like this, by culture i mean the materialistic culture that has been created in the last 30-40 years of oil wealth in the gulf states, so this culture i am talking about is new, its not part of their traditional culture, however it is part of their youth culture now.

[randolph85]

its a difficult situation. on one hand, these gulf countries are building their nations and a lot of the citizens are seeing the benefits of such expansion. on the other hand, there is still corruption and ridiculous decadence among the royal families that would make any decent person sick. if there is a good alternative i would be all for it, but i dont know if there is.

[Karachi]

^ they are actually not building countries or society, by building tallest buildings or luxury shopping malls one doesn't build country or society, they are only spoiling their society and if tommarow oil is finished they will go back to living in the desert

now countries like China/India are actually building their countries and societies, look how much they have advanced and have become world superpowers, where are the gulf countries?? 90% of their income is based from oil and once oil is gone, they are done