The kingdom of Saudi Arabia was established in the year 1747 by a ruler who was known as Mohammed Bin Sand. The Al-sand family ruled the Arabian Peninsula in the 19th century, but in the year 1902 Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman Al-sand took over the management of the country. The economic activities of Saudi Arabia were the mining of petroleum products and then exporting them to international markets in foreign countries. It had the largest petroleum reserves in the world. The petroleum sector accounts took about 75% of the country’s budget revenues it contributed to about 40% of the gross domestic product of the economy and 90% of the export earnings of the country. About 4 million workers worked in the country’s mining industries and they contributed to the growth of the economy and also increased their living standards. In the year 2000, the prices of oil remained stable, but there were suggestions that the members of Oil Petroleum and Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the international companies would increase the prices of petroleum products since the commodity was scarce in the country due to depletion of oil wells and also faced stiff competition from international countries that produced the same commodity.
The government of Saudi Arabia experienced a budget deficit of 47.5 million because it had planned to increase the spending of the country’s children’s education and for other social problems that affected the company. The government in the year 1999 announced plans to privatize the electricity companies and the telecommunications company to increase its investments to increase the earnings of the country.
The country experienced increased oil production from 0.3 million barrels of oil per day in the year 2005 to a forecasted amount of about 1.1 million barrels of oil per day in the year 2009 according to its budget. The increased productions of oil in the country lead the management to develop programs that would ensure that the revenue increased and also improve the economic status of the country. The programs were used to facilitate the increase of the government expenditure to increase the infrastructure of the company which would enhance the production of goods and services that would facilitate the growth of the economy. The government raised the wages and pensions of the employees in its budgets to increase their living standards and also to facilitate productivity among the employees of the country. The government expenditures were classified into three types: government consumption, government investment, and government borrowing. Government consumption referred to the purchase of goods and services for the current use of the government. The government expenditure referred to expenditure that was intended to create future benefits to an organization and also the country as a whole. The transfer payments were the expenditures that were not related to the purchase of goods and services by they represented the transfer of money and were used to make social security payments.
The constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom decreased the public sector spending that is the government spending of taxes. The annual spending of government expenditure on infrastructure grew by £29 million in the year 2006. The government expenditure levels in the United States were a result of the activities that were carried out by the federal state and local governments. The United States of America derived its revenue from three areas such as local sources, state, and federal aid. The sources of revenue were income tax, sales tax, and property taxes. The local government authorities relied heavily on the intergovernmental transfer taxes, property taxes, charges that covered the cost of services that were provided for the charges, and the miscellaneous income from the states. The other revenue sources are income and sales taxes.
The government of Saudi Arabia derived its revenue by selling petroleum products to international countries. The oil reserves of Saudi Arabia were discovered by a United State geologist in the year 1930. The oil production in the country brought about increased economic development and this resulted in increased returns for the country. The country joined other members of the World Trade Organization to increase the market volume of the oil in foreign countries. The earnings of oil improved the living standards of the residents of the country and also the economy of the country increased.
The Saudi Arabian budget was presented to parliament by the council of ministers. It focused on enhancing the increase of the infrastructure country due to increased production of oil, which increased the wealth of the economy of the country. The budget contained the following expenditure details in the following areas: education and manpower development would increase from SR 105 billion up to SR 8.3 billion on the budgeted figure of 2007. The funding would consist of putting up 2074 new schools, seven technical institutes for girls, and 16 vocational training centers. The budget would consist of expenditure on health and social affairs whereby SR 44.4 billion would be allocated to meet this expenditure. The 13% of the finance would be used to finance the building of eight new hospitals and 250 primary care centers. The budget finance would also be used to finance water, agriculture, and infrastructure by 15% at SR 28.5 billion. The transportation and telecommunication would receive SR16.4 billion to facilitate the construction of the road network, which was 24,000 kilometers. The government of Saudi Arabian budget derived revenue of SR 450 billion with 85% of revenue been derived from the production of oil in the country. The price for oil barrels was budgeted to be at $45 for the Saudi Arabia oil as compared to $49 barrel of oil in the World Trade Organizations oil. The production of 9.1 million per day would be enough to meet the demand for oil in that financial year.
The United States of America’s budget for the year 2008 totaled an amount of $2.9 trillion. The budget was issued by the office of management and budget. The budget contained the president’s budget message, information about the president’s budget proposals for the given fiscal year, and other budgetary publications that would be used throughout the fiscal year. The activities that the government intended to achieve during the year were about the United States economic revenue projections, discretionary spending, and mandatory spending and it would also address the issue of the impact of deficit spending in the country.
The population of Saudi Arabia was small and this leads to the high gross domestic product of the country because few people consumed the commodities in that country. The government of Saudi Arabia offered its residents services such as medical care, sickness and maternity care, child care, pensions, unemployment benefits, and in some cases housing and disability benefits. The government did not provide state pension schemes to the foreign expatriates of the country, although certain state institutions and some international schemes were used as saving plans for the residents of the country since they made small contributions so that they could use them to cater for the health of the employees and also be used to finance the employees during their retirement period. Many companies offered a variety of pension schemes that were either based on lump sums and some others supported by regular savings of the employees.
The pension plans in the United States of America started over 100 years ago, although most people did not collect their contributions due to the regulations that were attached to the schemes. The pension benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) was a federal agency whose responsibility was to protect the current and future retirees who were now over 44 million. The corporation issued traditional or defined benefits plans. The plans were in such a way that the employee or employer representatives contributed to an investment fund whereby the managers made promises to pay all the participating workers their vested benefits when they attained the retirement age. The worker’s benefit level was determined by the formula that was based on earnings and the length of service. The benefits were paid on monthly basis others were paid on an annuity or lump sum basis. The pension Benefit Guaranty Corp was a finance company that played the role of an insurance agency it derived as much of its income through collecting premiums that were contributed by the employees of different companies in the country. The pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation invested its finances in the financial markets such as the fixed-income funds and by 2008 it had funds that were about $35 billion trusts funds that had earned interests because of investing in the financial markets. The company received no tax dollars but it was not supported by the government thus it went into financial difficulties, therefore, the company was not in a position to generate returns that would improve the performance of the company.
References
Saudi Arabian the country in brief. 2008. Web.
Lindeman, David C. (1993), “Underfunding and Bankruptcy: Pensions’ Plagues and the PBGC.”The American Enterprise, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 72–80.
Salisbury, Dallas and Nora Jones, Eds (1994). Retirement in the 21st Century: Ready or Not. Washington, D.C.: Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Kandarian, Steven A. (2003) PBGC Executive Director, testimony before the Special Committee on Aging. U.S. Senate.