Iran’s Unemployment Rate Shoots Up, While Brazen-Rich Kids Flaunt Money
Iran, a naturally wealthy country, is not amongst the top five richest countries of the Middle East despite the extravagant luxurious lifestyle of rich kids of Iran, as showcased on social media. The World Bank estimated Iran’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at US$440 billion for the Iranian calendar year 2019-20, for a population of about 82.8 million.
Iran, which ranks second in the world for natural gas reserves and fourth in proven crude oil reserves, saw its economy shrink by 6.8 percent in 2019-20, while the oil sector shrank by 38.7 percent. The country’s unemployment rate has been above 10 percent from a decade now. Iran’s current unemployment rate is 11.18 percent of the total labour force.
This draws a stark comparison between the unemployed poor and unemployed rich people, the latter being the kids who inherited money from their rich parents. Iran’s rich kids, who have hardly kept their wealth a secret, are all over social media, especially Instagram and Twitter.
A Los Angeles Times article once quoted “When the occasional Maserati roars through the crowded streets of Tehran, past crowded buses and shabby domestic sedans, pedestrians sometimes unleash streams of curses in its wake.”
The Rich Kids of Tehran is a popular Instagram account that showcases the lives of attractive young boys and girls flaunting Hermes accessories, Christian Louboutin shoes and Louis Vuitton clothes at frolic poolside at lavish mansions in Tehran, forgetting that in the same city desperate unemployed people sell their kidneys to bring home food.
These wealthy elites, who have reaped the benefits of a top-down theocratic regime, act like a new aristocratic class unaware of the sources of their wealth. They boldly, yet shamelessly, drive Porsches and Maseratis through the city before the eyes of less fortunate people, while posting it all on Instagram.
Pictures of 20-somethings flaunting their money, expensive cars, mansions, exclusive vacations and backgrounds of luxurious hotels are a common scene on the Instagram account of the Rich Kids of Tehran. These unemployed rich kids enjoy extravagant accommodations which the majority of Iranian population may never get a chance to witness.
Economic disparity or inequality amongst the people of Iran has been budding since a decade, more so after President Hassan Rouhani introduced the austerity budget. Today, unemployment is especially high amongst young people and women in Iran. Even the people who are employed are considered as underemployed.
Iran’s struggling economy has been in a recession, thus, exacerbating difficulties to meet the employment demands of its inhabitants. As the economy is expected to decline further, it has become difficult to create jobs. Since, Iranian economy still depends on oil revenues to a large extent, this further reduces the stability of the economy and employment. With a decreasing per capita GDP and a high inflation rate people are now more vulnerable to changes in income and employment, making the unemployment a pressing issue that the country may not be able to manage in the coming future.
