What $3.00+ per gallon gas buys you...

[Jeff Murphy]

I don't generally like talking politics and international relations on the board, but...

...to be fair, it's unlikely that the guys in the picture above have much interest in pre-wiring anything other than daddy's bank balance to their London branch.

But wealth distribution in the Gulf States is part of the problem. Dubai and the Emirates in particular do have a fairly broad distribution of wealth as a social policy, but what that means is that they import labor from other Islamic countries to do the work they won't do and under generally suboptimal conditions. It's worse in Saudi Arabia because the wealth is even more concentrated and there aren't a lot of jobs. The Kingdom is trying to stimulate a local stock market, is encouraging infrastructure projects, etc. to grow the domestic economy, but the economy's reliance on oil money won't go away in our lifetimes. I think that is why so many of the current terrorists are Saudis or Saudi-based. We should be pretty happy that our imported labor is predominantly Catholic!

I don't want to draw wierd parallels, but Bin Laden obviously comes from a very wealthy family and had the education, leisure time and resources to figure out that he didn't like the current system. It's the upper middle class (ie the guys in the picture above) that can be most dangerous the established system, if even if they aren't directly blowing themselves up. All of the great liberators of Latin America, Bolivar (in the North), San Martin (in Argentina) and O'Higgins (Chile), were from a similar socio-economic status. I'm sure there are intelligent Islamists calling all of us hypocrits because they see themselves as "liberators" and no different from the signers of the Declaration of Independence (I'm sure George III would have had a different name for them).

The difference is obviously in the means to an end and what the outcome is supposed to achieve. The 56 guys that signed the Declaration may have fought a bit unconventionally at times to win their independence, but the rules were pretty clear. I think the outcome speaks for itself

With any luck and the resolve of our troops and allies, the other guys won't live to sign anything except a few more hollow Sharias

[COPO]

Jeff, thanks for posting the pics of some great cars and your excellent observations. I had the "pleasure" of living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and traveled often to Dubai and throughout the middle east. Lots of hypocrites over there. I recall the B/A flights from Jeddah to London with lots of partying in 1st class with your neighborhood friends. Harrods is certainly worth a trip.

[WILMASBOYL78]

About a month ago same character in a cheap suit came to my office saying he was doing a "congressional survey" about what should be done about the price of gas. He wanted to interview me and relay my thoughts to congress...I told him I didn't have time..but he persisted. So, I told him we should just blacktop Iraq and put gas pumps on the docks for easy loading of our tankers! He wasn't too happy...then I threw him out!... I read somewhere that gas is .80 gal in Saudi Arabia I think we are headed for "a reckoning"...reg. gas wil be 3.50 gal by Labor Day

wilma

[ANDY M]

Jeff, those boys in your photos are really the "Lower Upper Class" of the Arabs. They are the spoiled jet set rich kids with no interest in any national policy, they just show off by spending their unearned money that was given to them.
All of the gulf states are monachies, and the rulers know that changing their economy to anything that would cause them to loose power isn't going to happen soon.
The clerics that can cause change to occure are the minority that don't want to stir up a hornets nest.
Also, there is almost no middle class that could influence the ruling class.
The only thing they all agree on is that Israel shouldn't exist, and that if the west supports Israel, they will continue to rip us off.
(With the help of our own oil industry, who are showing record profits). Remember, oil is a speculative commodity that is traded worldwide, and that there is no shortage of Americans getting rich off of the worlds troubles.
JMO.