$80 Oil Is Crushing The American Dream, And Saudi Arabia Is Smiling All The Way To The Bank
You feel it every time you fill up your tank. That split-second hesitation as the numbers on the pump blur past $60, then $70, then $80. You feel it when your grocery bill somehow costs 30% more than it did two years ago. You feel it when your landlord sends a “market adjustment” notice, citing “unprecedented supply chain costs.” You’re not imagining it. The American middle class is being slowly crushed by a single, invisible force—and it’s not a villain in Washington. It’s a corporation in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Aramco, the Saudi Arabian state-owned oil giant, just reported a net income of $121.3 billion for 2023. That’s not a typo. That’s more than the entire GDP of countries like Hungary or Ukraine. And while you’re struggling to afford bread and eggs, Aramco is spending billions on a new global expansion plan, buying up refineries in China, and literally building a futuristic city in the desert called NEOM. The disconnect between their reality and ours is not just an economic anomaly—it’s a moral crisis.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about blaming the Saudis for being good capitalists. They are playing the game we taught them. The real problem is that America has allowed its energy independence to be held hostage by a monarchy that doesn’t share our values. We were promised “energy dominance” after the shale boom. We were told that fracking would set us free. And for a brief, glorious moment, it did. In 2019, the United States became the world’s largest oil producer, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia. We were supposed to be immune to OPEC’s whims.
Then came the pandemic. Then came the war in Ukraine. Then came the inflation crisis. And suddenly, the White House was begging the Saudi Crown Prince for a phone call. Remember that? “MBS,” the man who allegedly ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, became the only person who could save the American economy from $100 oil. The optics were grotesque. The reality was worse.
Aramco doesn’t just profit from high oil prices; it engineers them. The company, along with the rest of OPEC+, has masterfully managed supply to keep prices high while production in the U.S. stagnates. American oil companies, terrified of repeating the 2020 price war, are hoarding cash instead of drilling. They’re paying dividends to shareholders—many of whom are foreign investors—rather than investing in the kind of domestic energy security that would actually lower your gas bill. The result is a perfect, vicious cycle: We need their oil, so they keep the price high, which makes them richer, which gives them more leverage to keep the price high.
But the real damage isn’t just at the pump. The ripple effects are dismantling the foundation of American daily life. High energy costs are the primary driver of inflation in every other sector. That $2 loaf of bread? It’s $2 because the farmer had to pay $4.50 for diesel to plant the wheat, the trucking company had to pay $6,000 for fuel to haul it, and the bakery had to pay double for electricity to bake it. Every single item in your house—from your phone to your sofa to the plastic bottle in your fridge—is a direct function of oil prices. When Aramco sneezes, your 401(k) catches a cold.
We are witnessing a slow-motion societal collapse disguised as a cost-of-living crisis. Families are choosing between putting gas in the car to get to work and buying groceries. Young people can’t afford to move out of their parents’ basements because rent is tied to energy costs. Small businesses are closing their doors because their entire profit margin is eaten up by logistics. And meanwhile, the Saudi Public Investment Fund—flush with Aramco cash—is buying up everything from soccer teams to Silicon Valley startups. They own a piece of your entertainment, your technology, and soon, your infrastructure.
The ethical rot goes deeper. We are funding a regime that has one of the worst human rights records on the planet. We are indirectly paying for a war in Yemen that has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. We are empowering a government that jails women for driving—ironically, they don’t need to jail them anymore because the oil money made them change the law, but the underlying authoritarian structure remains. Every time you fill up your car, you are sending a wire transfer to a royal family that has no elections, no free press, and no accountability.
And what is the American response? A pathetic game of political chicken. The current administration blames “corporate greed” and “price gouging.” The previous administration promised “drill, baby, drill.” Neither has the courage to admit the uncomfortable truth: We are addicted, and the dealer knows it. We have no national strategy to break this cycle. Our strategic petroleum reserve is being drained like a leaky bucket. Our transition to electric vehicles is moving at a glacial pace, hampered by a broken supply chain and a political culture war that treats EVs as a lifestyle choice rather than a national security imperative.
The most terrifying part? This is not going to get better on its own. Aramco is not a charity. It has a mandate to maximize shareholder value, and its sole shareholder is the Saudi state. They have every incentive to keep oil prices in the “sweet spot” of $70 to $90 a barrel for the next decade. They have the financial reserves to ride out any short-term dip. They are betting that the American consumer will just keep paying, because they have no other choice.
So far, the bet is paying off. The American Dream was built on cheap energy. It was the suburban home with the two-car garage. It was the road trip across the country. It was the factory that could ship its goods anywhere in the world for pennies. That dream is now being auctioned off to the highest bidder, and the only bidder left is a state-owned oil company in the Arabian Desert.
We are not just paying
Final Thoughts
Having watched the global energy landscape for decades, it's clear that Aramco’s resilience isn't just about its massive reserves, but its ability to pivot: it's no longer merely a crude supplier, but a downstream and petrochemicals powerhouse that can weather price volatility by capturing value at every link in the chain. The real story here, however, is the quiet tension between its record profits and the existential pressure to decarbonize—a tightrope walk that will define not just the company’s future, but the stability of global markets. Ultimately, Aramco remains the undisputed heavyweight champion of oil, but the coming decade will test whether it can leverage that heft to become a credible leader in the energy transition, or if it will be forced to fight a defensive battle against time.