There is a group of people whose numbers are increasing every day; they are not only unemployed but they also have got used to laziness. They have no desire to work hard and they haven’t earned educational qualifications or searched for job opportunities to earn a living. They tend to sleep late and have nothing to do but hang around in shopping centers, sit in coffee shops and flirt with girls.
This group is divided into two types: The first type includes people selling their names — their personal ID cards — to stock brokers and to citizens rushing to buy shares. Usually, the process entails no risk and people sell each personal IDs for SR500 — exactly like what happened with the Dana Gas Company shares.
The second type is a dangerous group of people whose crimes might destroy the economy. They sell their names to foreigners, especially Asians, who practice all kinds of commercial activities in public. The government knows about this and it is very easy to identify these people because they are always in electrical appliance shops, mini-markets, car repair shops, restaurants, vegetable markets and traditional markets.
They are also noticeable because they work 14 hours a day, which is a long working day and an employee making SR1,500 won’t do. These people, however, make a great profit out of which they are able to pay annual shop rentals of up to SR200,000. They transfer an estimated SR60 billion to their countries. Serious citizens can’t compete with these people because they are capable of developing their properties. Ordinary citizens end up closing their shops or searching for a foreigner who will work for them and run their business.
To realize how widespread this dangerous phenomenon is, we should know that 75 percent of commercial activities are owned by small investors. They are free from hiring Saudis if the number of employees doesn’t exceed 10 — which means that unemployed citizens can’t work there.
There is a committee that fights this, yet it is weak and riddled with corruption. In the end, we have to live in this situation against our will and we can only ask Allah for His mercy.
