By John Q. Hosedrinker 
Initially announced in 2017, Neom was a futuristic megaproject envisioned by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, promising a technologically advanced city including a 170km linear city known as “The Line.” However, the project has faced significant setbacks, with the Saudi government admitting the project will be downsized due to delays and ballooning costs. Architects and urban planners have criticized the project from its inception, deeming it impractical from an urban planning and financial perspective. Despite the Crown Prince’s ambitious goals, the project’s scaling back reflects a shift towards a more realistic approach and may signal a reduced likelihood of similar large-scale initiatives in the future.
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Neom nightmare: How Mohammed bin Salman’s dream of a ‘city of the future’ became a $500bn disaster, and where do we even begin? It seems like a classic case of a rich guy with a bad idea, surrounded by yes-men, who didn’t listen to anyone who dared to disagree. The whole concept was doomed from the start. How anyone ever thought this made sense is baffling.
If you’re planning on building a city, the last thing you want to do is stretch it out along a line for 170 kilometers. That alone is a recipe for disaster. And if you’re pretending your goal is efficiency and environmental protection, a 500-meter-tall building that spans 170 kilometers guarantees you’ll fail on both counts. Honestly, it’s hard to believe anyone *wasn’t* able to see this coming. Future generations will likely scratch their heads wondering how so much wealth was wasted on such a vanity project, a project that did absolutely nothing to advance civilization. I mean, I recently saw an ad for a similar project in Dubai, and I’m frankly surprised these middle eastern fantasy projects are still finding funding. The walls of that bubble are starting to look pretty thin.
The whole thing sounds like a futuristic city in a desert with a bizarre concept that, unsurprisingly, failed. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was some elaborate money-laundering scheme from the start. The Behind the Bastards podcast has done a few episodes on MBS, so it might be worth a listen. Why couldn’t they do something actually useful, like investing in charitable causes that benefit people? They could have bought goodwill, but instead, they opted for… this. Some say it was an idea conjured up while doing a line of something, I couldn’t say for sure. They could have taken a page from Oman and built human-scale cities with amazing architecture and amenities. That’s what actually draws people in and benefits everyone.
I’ve never heard anyone say they wanted to go to Dubai specifically to see the Burj Khalifa. They’re just vanity projects for rich elites who never had to grow up and learn about good governance. It’s exactly the kind of thing anyone with common sense and a lack of starry-eyed wonder could see coming. Architects, you might want to avoid Saudi embassies for a while, because this seems to be the blueprint for every project they announce. It’s almost as if a man whose only qualification is his lineage, isn’t very good at designing complex projects and executing grand visions. Shocking.
If I were a dictator with $500 billion, I’d be tempted to terraform the desert with artificial lakes and canals, or maybe even build a space elevator. It’s truly amazing that this didn’t work. I am, for one, shocked. They were paying architects top dollar and didn’t want to hear anything about what couldn’t be done. This is the world’s most obvious bad idea, and it turned out to be a bad idea. Giving $500 billion to rich people who’ve never worked a day in their lives is essentially what this boiled down to. This is what happens when an inept megalomaniac surrounds himself with sycophants. They should have named it “The Dash” and seen how that would have played out. And I’m sure all those urbanism influencers on YouTube who promoted this against logic and reason must be so proud right now.
It wasn’t a disaster, it was a deliberate waste of money. A disaster implies accident or unforeseen circumstances. These people burned half a trillion dollars because they’re, frankly, not very bright. And they killed a bunch of people while they were at it, because the people in charge have the emotional maturity of children. Are we really surprised that the Arab world is blowing its wealth on toys instead of investing in infrastructure, education, and technology? Color me shocked.
Some people think it’s about laundering money, but honestly, this guy doesn’t need to launder money. He controls the country! There’s no one to arrest him. There is no need to launder money when you control a country. Neom was never anything but a scam to funnel oil money to politically connected construction firms.
So, the news is that it’s failing? I haven’t heard about it in a while. At least they’re getting a multi-part episode on Behind the Bastards out of it. Hey, it’s not like that $500 billion could have been used for anything more productive, right? As they say, “Pride cometh before a fall.” I watched a video that said it was all a ploy to get rid of Wahhabism or something. Seems plausible.
Burning through this money isn’t a surprise. Nobody with a functioning brain thought this was a serious project. It was some kind of PR stunt or money-laundering scheme from the start. Least surprising news ever. I remember seeing commercials on TV in the UK and thinking, what the heck? Looking at the wealth they’ve amassed, I don’t understand why Saudi Arabia would back off from this project now. Even if it fails, which is the expected outcome, it’s not going to make much difference to the rulers of Saudi Arabia.