Gulf states’ policy of spending to silence unrest raises questions of sustainability - The Washington Post

The Arab Spring hasn’t come cheap.

Uprisings this year across the Arab world — stoked by chasms of income disparity, high unemployment and inflation — are now being addressed with pledges of money.

From Egypt to the Gulf states, more than $160 billion has been pledged to fund job creation, social programs and private sector growth — funding that nervous governments hope will be enough to appease their increasingly impatient populations. More than 75 percent of that total is for Saudi Arabia alone, where the oil-rich kingdom wants to buy domestic stability with jobs and handouts.

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