Gulf Arabs hate our guts. The royals like us because we guarantee their borders. Don't believe me? Check out the Pew reports on Arab sentiment towards the US sometime. Note that 9/11 was financed by Gulf Arabs. Not the Gulf royals. The hoi polloi and wealthy private individuals who would put the heads of the royals on pikes if they had their way.
The oil revenues are parceled out among them, and each Prince also comes with a "posse," or entourage of HIS family and a usually Iranian "business manager." Pieces of the economic action are parceled out amongst them according to some arcane pecking order. E.G., MacDonalds has a "Prince" sponsor who gets his cut off the top. Ford, Mercedes, Wendy's, KFC, GE, Apple, Microsoft, etc.,etc. ditto. The country lives on imports ... and every last nut and bolt, every mouthful of food, every CD, is some prince or other's piece of the action. They jockey constantly to get their share of the money, government posts, etc. Put it another way: there are by now probably a Million multi millionaires and a couple of hundred true billionaires.
All this wealth is divided into zealously guarded "territories." The Royal Army is offset by the Saudi National Guard ... you got it ... two different "Princes." The Air Force ... the Navy... the National Police ... The Religious Police ... each Government department ... each under the control of a different "Prince." It's their idea of Checks and Balances. Think Tony Soprano crossed with Louis XV, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the The Hole in the Wall Gang.
There are plenty of other non-royal super rich people in the mix, too. But they too pay up the line to their prince. The upshot of all this is that one Prince is in charge of anti-terror intelligence, while another Prince and some wealthy cronies will be funding explosive jockstraps for some group of fanatics attached to some other Prince's favorite mosque. Everyone knows everything except us .... and the House of Saud benefits because they have total plausible deniability. The 9/11 people are a fine example.
Incredible as it may seem, there are many poor people, too. The Cradle-to-the-Grave thing has been stretched mighty thin because the population has quintupled in the last 30 years. A Saudi citizen can still literally walk over to "city hall" and sign for a new white Toyota pick-up, but things aren't as lavish as they once were. A Saudi citizen can still have all the food he wants, and cheap housing and utilities for himself and 20 or so ex-wives who raise his 50 children, but it can get tight. The typical young Saudi of any means at all doesn't work much, just drives around all day long going to fast food joints and to the mosque for daily indoctrination ... that's why so many are available for mujahedin duty.
The House of Saud? Worst set of SoB's in the entire world ... except for what would follow them in control of this "country." Think a new "Khadaffi" .... crazier and on even more steroids and crack.