Their population of 27 million is over three times the population of Israel, a country with no shortage of engineers.
I've encountered Saudis when I worked for a defense contractor. Their real problem is that they don't have enough intelligent, industrious people to make a go of it.
MOST probably, there are only half that number of Saudis. They have many, many foreigners there to do what they can't do.
We had IRISH nurses in our clinics, American women doctors, Filippino nannies for the Saudi children, Filippino male workers for EVERYTHING (since they work VERY cheap), Pakistani and Indian clerks and so on.
Also, from what we were told about the Jewish Israelis, by tour guides, Jews generally are very educated. When we went to Israel in 2011 we saw a "typical" job employment place. There were THREE windows for Israeli applicants:
1. Bachelor of Science
2. Masters of Science
3. Ph. D. Doctor of Philosophy
There were NO windows for "entry level" jobs. The Palestinians do the dirty work: store clerks, toilet cleaners, farming, etc.
Our group (Steve Ray, "Footsteps of God" tour) had a Palestinian, Roman Catholic Arab as our tour guide for Bethlehem. Very strange that last one. His English was excellent.
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I've encountered Saudis when I worked for a defense contractor. Their real problem is that they don't have enough intelligent, industrious people to make a go of it.
No doubt you are correct. They marry first cousins. That keeps the land and money "all in the family." The Farsis from India do that too. They were ORIGINALLY from Persia but when Persia became Muslim, that VERY close intermarriage became an anathema to them. In their Farsi world ONLY monther-son marriages were forbidden. ALL OTHERS were acceptable! Yes, brothers and sisters married as did fathers and daughters. Lord have mercy.
BTW, Indian culture IS accepting of almost any kind of marriage arrangement. They consider that a plus in their culture. They STILL allow the marriage that is anathema to the rest of the planet, since the Muslim Persians KICKED THEM OUT OF INDIA.
Also, the Saudis don't have our "Puritan work ethic" or our Western work ethic. Their ideal afternoon is to spend it with, for example, a group of men who sit around drinking tea and discussing the world.
One afternoon I encountered my boss and his same-aged co-workers doing this and they kept saying the word "sayyareet." Afterwards, I asked my boss what that was all about, since they all seemed unhappy about it, whatever it was.
He said that they were bemoaning the fact that their 18-year-old sons didn't want to work or go to school. All they wanted to do was to drive around in their cars (sayyareet).
I told him that many of OUR 18-year-olds wanted that same thing. Please, no flames here. It was just an opinion of mine.
The Saudi women do the same thing, get together, drink tea and discuss the world among themselves. Matriarchs arrange all the marriages and that is a most important task. They discuss THAT at length, I'm sure.
However, as Zuben Mehta, the Indian Farsi and world famous concert master said a long time ago, when you DO have that too-close intermarriage you occasionally DO "come up with a genius, like me." Direct quote from him.