In 2017, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sat alongside Steve Schwarzman and Masayoshi Son at the first iteration of Saudi Arabia’s annual financial summit to unveil a next-century city called Neom. The two billionaire investors were quick to heap praise on the $500 billion plan that envisioned a metropolis with more robots than humans and enough solar panels to fill out the Great Wall of China.
In a free market structure, Saudi oil exports create huge demand for the Saudi Riyal, making it appreciate massively against all other currencies. This makes any other export uncompetitive, and imports really cheap. Thus, it kills off most of Saudi Arabia’s domestic industries, actively punishing diversification despite being the smart thing to do.
To extend this further, Saudi Arabia exemplifies how capitalism is very efficient at making huge profits, but really bad at building a functional economy. It’s why the US spends 17.6% of its GDP on healthcare, and yet has a terrible life expectancy for a developed country.