I think the difference is potentially that the Gulf countries - Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar etc - benefitted from being able to develop their economies and infrastruct

I think the difference is potentially that the Gulf countries - Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar etc - benefitted from being able to develop their economies and infrastructure and establish large social welfare systems in the 70s and 80s while their populations were small and oil prices and income were very high. Here's a chart that shows Saudi per capita income from the 70s: https://d3fy651gv2fhd3.cloudfront.net/embed/?s=saunygdppcapkd&v=201907041342a1&d1=19190101&d2=20191231&h=300&w=600 https://d3fy651gv2fhd3.cloudfront.net/embed/?s=saunygdppcapk... You can see that their per capita collapsed in the 80s along with oil prices. The royal families in those countries are incredibly corrupt by modern standards, but they have established a system that keeps everyone outside that circle in line with subsidies, religion and threats of imprisonment.