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"The order made by King Salman, pictured, is the latest in a series of steps to include more women in the workforce to help diversify the country’s economy and

"The order made by King Salman, pictured, is the latest in a series of steps to include more women in the workforce to help diversify the country’s economy and reduce its reliance on oil" So this tells us a couple of things: 1. If this whole oppressing women thing was ever about religion (that is their justification), they are pretty willing to forget religion when they need money. 2. That whole oil thing isn't going so great for them these days.

tsomctl 9y ago
The whole oil thing is going great for them. They just realize it's not going to be great forever, and they should prepare for that day. On a related note, they are also increasing their use on solar. For one such example, see http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Saudi-Arabia-To-Spend-50-Billion-On-Massive-Solar-Push.html http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Saudi-Arabia-To-Sp...
protomyth 9y ago
The whole oil thing isn't going well for them. The whole OPEC agreement seems to have holes, and fracking is becoming cheaper as the process improves putting a max on what oil can be sold for. We'll see post IPO.
- narrowrail 9y ago
  Near as I can tell, the oil industry has been a series of boom/bust cycles since the '20s. OPEC has always been this way as well, it's always been a gentleman's agreement of sorts, not to mention the sanctioned countries operating outside of the open market. It's also important to note that "oil" varies quite a bit in its composition and the process to refine oil of different qualities requires significant refinery (re)configurations.
  - protomyth 9y ago
    True, Saudi & ND / TX shale oil are high quality where Canada's oil sands and Venezuela are not. Although it is very cheap for SA to produce oil, shale is getting cheaper (which has made the oil sands less desirable). The recent OPEC agreement to limit oil just doesn't seem to be working.
wand3r 9y ago
Look, I'm super cynical and I make statements that group people together like this too; but that said: King fights religious & cultural bias to promote a more equitable set of norms; works on fixing reliance on a finite and harmful resource for sustainability Your response was that all of "them" (hundreds or millions of people potentially depending on how you define it) are backward. Religion isn't math; it's subjective. Not a subscriber myself but I welcome the reinterpretation. Oil / The economy isn't going so great. 1) It is certainly generating income and power. 2) The most wealthy and powerful beneficiary announced he's trying to distribute the money using that power and transform it in a positive way
- rebootthesystem 9y ago
  > Religion isn't math; it's subjective. No I'm sorry. It is objectively delusional.
  - Griffinsauce 9y ago
    It's objectively (1) a very early way to make sense of the world and (2) a way to set up ready made norms and values for even your most unintelligent parts of society. It's very effective at those things. That said: we have science now for the first bit, which is much more effective at that job minus the simplicity. What do we have to replace the second part?
    - Schwolop 9y ago
      Sports. I should probably expand on that somewhat tongue in cheek answer. It's a pretty cynical response, but there's truth in it. Following and/or playing sports provides people with a tribe and a set of shared values and camaraderie. Much like religion, I've never felt the need for this, but there's certainly a very large set of people who do.
  - leesalminen 9y ago
    Agreed. I think all organized religion should be disbanded. Too much violence results when people believe in fairy tales.
lern_too_spel 9y ago
This was never about religion. This was always about the royal family maintaining power. In 1979, they implemented laws repressing women and otherwise increasing social authority of clerics in order to avoid having the same fate as the Shah of Iran. Now with the economy slowly failing and with the recent example of the Arab Spring in other countries with economic trouble, they need to liberalize the workforce to stave off an Arab Spring of their own. The Sauds have been educated at the most expensive Western schools and are not the backwards nomads that they rule over.

tsomctl 9y ago

The whole oil thing is going great for them. They just realize it's not going to be great forever, and they should prepare for that day. On a related note, they are also increasing their use on solar. For one such example, see http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Saudi-Arabia-To-Spend-50-Billion-On-Massive-Solar-Push.html http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Saudi-Arabia-To-Sp...

protomyth 9y ago

The whole oil thing isn't going well for them. The whole OPEC agreement seems to have holes, and fracking is becoming cheaper as the process improves putting a max on what oil can be sold for. We'll see post IPO.

narrowrail 9y ago
Near as I can tell, the oil industry has been a series of boom/bust cycles since the '20s. OPEC has always been this way as well, it's always been a gentleman's agreement of sorts, not to mention the sanctioned countries operating outside of the open market. It's also important to note that "oil" varies quite a bit in its composition and the process to refine oil of different qualities requires significant refinery (re)configurations.
- protomyth 9y ago
  True, Saudi & ND / TX shale oil are high quality where Canada's oil sands and Venezuela are not. Although it is very cheap for SA to produce oil, shale is getting cheaper (which has made the oil sands less desirable). The recent OPEC agreement to limit oil just doesn't seem to be working.

wand3r 9y ago

Look, I'm super cynical and I make statements that group people together like this too; but that said: King fights religious & cultural bias to promote a more equitable set of norms; works on fixing reliance on a finite and harmful resource for sustainability Your response was that all of "them" (hundreds or millions of people potentially depending on how you define it) are backward. Religion isn't math; it's subjective. Not a subscriber myself but I welcome the reinterpretation. Oil / The economy isn't going so great. 1) It is certainly generating income and power. 2) The most wealthy and powerful beneficiary announced he's trying to distribute the money using that power and transform it in a positive way

rebootthesystem 9y ago
> Religion isn't math; it's subjective. No I'm sorry. It is objectively delusional.
- Griffinsauce 9y ago
  It's objectively (1) a very early way to make sense of the world and (2) a way to set up ready made norms and values for even your most unintelligent parts of society. It's very effective at those things. That said: we have science now for the first bit, which is much more effective at that job minus the simplicity. What do we have to replace the second part?
  - Schwolop 9y ago
    Sports. I should probably expand on that somewhat tongue in cheek answer. It's a pretty cynical response, but there's truth in it. Following and/or playing sports provides people with a tribe and a set of shared values and camaraderie. Much like religion, I've never felt the need for this, but there's certainly a very large set of people who do.
- leesalminen 9y ago
  Agreed. I think all organized religion should be disbanded. Too much violence results when people believe in fairy tales.

lern_too_spel 9y ago

This was never about religion. This was always about the royal family maintaining power. In 1979, they implemented laws repressing women and otherwise increasing social authority of clerics in order to avoid having the same fate as the Shah of Iran. Now with the economy slowly failing and with the recent example of the Arab Spring in other countries with economic trouble, they need to liberalize the workforce to stave off an Arab Spring of their own. The Sauds have been educated at the most expensive Western schools and are not the backwards nomads that they rule over.