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Comment by munk-a | Hacker News Reader

Just to preempt the other obvious reply (Okay - so that's good for the House of Saud but what about the rest of the country?). If they're wise and invest that money into education they could just convert their current rather highly skilled resource economy into an economy focused on service, finances or defense.

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The issue is that most Saudis don’t work. Most of the work done in that country is done by “lower classes” of non Saudis. So when the tap dries up and they all have to work. What do they do?

> What do they do?

Realistically - they'll get deported to their home countries. There's no government on earth that will tolerate a non-citizen, non-refugee as a public charge with no prospect of being productive in the future. Foreigners are politically convenient scape-goats for all that is wrong with {ECONOMY|JOBS|CRIME|SERVICE DELIVERY}, and politicians will politic.

By "they all have to work" gp is referring to Saudi citizens, not the migrant workers. They (citizens) won't get deported anywhere.

The migrants will try to migrate somewhere else that has work.

The "they" in "what do they do" refers to unproductive Saudi citizens, not productive Saudi immigrants.

Oh, I misunderstood the question. I think if the government can afford to pay about $58,000 p.a. to each citizen based on sovereign fund interest alone, we'll get to witness the biggest UBI experiment the world has ever seen.

The house of Saud crucifies dissidents and murders journalists with a bonesaw. What makes you think they would do what you're saying?

Now, now. That's simply not true. The bonesaw was only for disassembly of the journalist after the murder.

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