The king has four legal wives, as is permitted in Muslim law, but I'm fairly sure that he has a myriad of concubines. Wealthy families there probably VIE for the opportunity to have their sons and daughters SOMEWHERE near the royal family.
The KING, by the way, personally owns all the petroleum and natural gas in the KSA. That keeps all the wealthy and prominent families from all FIGHTING over it. Good solution to the problem.
Also, the King HAS to be generous with everyone there. If he's a bad boy, for any reason, the population will NOT assassinate him--his OWN BROTHERS and other MALE RELATIVES will.
Their system of government may not be our cup of tea but it has worked for them for quite a while.
” If he’s a bad boy, for any reason, the population will NOT assassinate him—his OWN BROTHERS and other MALE RELATIVES will.”
An interesting form of ‘checks and balances.’
“The KING, by the way, personally owns all the petroleum and natural gas in the KSA. That keeps all the wealthy and prominent families from all FIGHTING over it. Good solution to the problem. “
Good way to prevent chaos. It also prevents foreigners from coming in and buying any form of control over the national economy.