Praise be to Allah, who has poured upon the people of Kuwait the blessing of security, cast over its lands a tranquility that extinguishes the flames of discord, extended to them provision sufficient for today and tomorrow, and blessed them with a home illuminated at hardly any cost, water whose source flows freely, food found by the poor and the wealthy alike, education obtained without heavy burdens, and medicine given without humiliation. These are blessings that, when counted, are many; when thanked for, endure; and when neglected, turn into a test that distinguishes the grateful from the wasteful, and the reformer from the corrupter.

“Subsidies”: When Blessings Are Tested by Their Abundance

Yet blessings have laws that favor no one. If they are squandered without prudence, they become like rain pouring into valleys that hold no water and grow no grass: it passes in waste, leaving behind only silt that clouds the stream. Such is the matter of “subsidies,” whose resources have branched out and whose forms have multiplied: in housing built without a burden that exhausts, water poured sweetly to doorsteps, electricity brought from night into day at hardly any price, education granted like an inheritance rather than purchased, medicine received by the hand of health rather than the hand of money, and even in what the state extends of kindness to the expatriate, sheltering him and assisting him with his needs.

Then there is another face that the hand does not grasp, but the senses perceive: hidden in form, great in effect. It appears in roads carved through stone to make livelihood easier, in public facilities that give life order and welfare a path, and in the shade of security spread over the land; for there is no life without tranquility to shelter it, and no prosperity without a road paved for it. These are blessings that flow like air. They are among the highest forms of giving and the most effective forms of care. They repair the relationship between human beings and their place, and establish on earth a serenity resembling peace when it descends.

These blessings have spread their grace over the citizen, the resident, and the land. Yet if hands reach toward them without measure, they first reassure hearts, then gradually lure them toward lightness of estimation and heaviness of consequence. They expand the spending of those whom Allah has enriched, while narrowing the share of those who need. They allow profits to flourish for those to whom one door has been opened, while the interests of those whose paths to livelihood have been closed begin to wither. Thus they neither lifted every person in need, nor dealt justly among people in distribution; rather, they disturbed the scale of the market, and the markers of right became blurred between eligibility and capacity.

This is not a matter of accusing people; a mountain is not blamed for its shadow. It is a matter of drafting “legislation” that returns every shadow to its source, and places around the blessing a fence of prudence and justice. We have lived too long under a condition in which public provisions are distributed in a manner resembling generosity, until, once they exceed their limit, they become a door to gentle wastefulness: unseen at its first day, but visible at the end of the road — resources drained, treasuries burdened, and hearts weary from the loss of the development and elevation that had been expected.

People have natures. Some, when given, are grateful, content, and cover a need. Others, when the flood grows abundant around them, tempt their land into excess; they see in water only what quenches their own thirst, forgetting that others have a share. The market is the same: if its air is good, its crop becomes balanced; but if too much is granted without account, the ambitions of merchants turn toward a direction other than mastery, and the difference between one price and another becomes a source of profit, not the difference between one craft and another. Here, quality is slowly assassinated, beautiful work is replaced by easy capture, and profits are built on the gap between state support and market price, not on the virtue of creativity or the skill of management.

This is not something strange in people; it is a nature that calls for policy. The defect comes when natures are left without governance, and when it is assumed that excess can repair what years have damaged. Excess is not only abundance in giving; it is placing giving outside its proper place, and extending a generous hand without insight that reads the effect of giving on people and country.

The essence is this: we do not seek to remove a blessing, nor do we call for hardship after prosperity. Rather, we wish to rearrange the house upon a “legislation” that protects the blessing from waste and reconnects what has been separated between justice and sufficiency. Justice is to deal with people according to need, not according to the accident of position. Sufficiency is for public dinars to produce public good, not the prosperity of one group. How often generosity without measure becomes a door to hidden injustice: the broader-handed benefit more because their capacity to use is greater, while the weak receive only the edge of the blessing. If this imbalance becomes entrenched, the “subsidy” that was created to lift all becomes a ladder by which some rise above others.

The Pillars of the Recommendation: Gentleness That Does Not Lose Firmness, and Justice That Does Not Stir Resentment

True reform is to move people from the era of loose grants to the era of disciplined justice — without shock and without deception, but as a gradual path in which steps are preceded by reassurance, not warnings. If people become confident that the hand of the state remains extended, and that the change is not deprivation but a redistribution of share, they will accept what they would have rejected had it come all at once.

A — From stagnation to announced gradualism: no leaps, but three stations, with room between them to catch one’s breath. If living costs rise beyond the limit of endurance, the journey is paused until the balance becomes sound again. This is a policy in which hearts find rest, because it makes them feel that the state is not testing their patience, but guarding it.

B — From the ruler of equality to the scale of justice: equality, though its shine may appear attractive, is not all of justice. How many equalities empower the strong over the weak without our noticing? Justice is that children, the elderly, and people in need are protected by a cover that does not expose them; that doors of ease are left open to those whom Allah has enriched; and that each person is measured according to their condition. A humane portion of the price preserves affordability for necessities, then whatever exceeds it bears the name of its user. In this way, the heart of the family becomes calm, and waste is disciplined when it feels that the blessing has someone guarding it.

C — From the provision of goods to the virtue of compensation: as for giving in the form of goods, how much it has corrupted habits. It burdens warehouses and lightens wallets, but it does not teach economy or cultivate management. Direct compensation is purer and more just. It reaches the hand with dignity, leaves its owner free to decide, and encourages him to weigh his own hand by the scale of reason, not merely by the scale of the market. Then he chooses; and choice refines desire; and desire aligns with need; and the feet of wastefulness become lighter.

D — From fragmented giving to centralized administration: authority over prices should be raised to a body that is not frightened by emotion. It should tell people what the service costs and what is wasted along the way, publish the facts, and establish a scale that does not lean. People are enemies of what they do not know. When the account becomes clear, doubt disperses; and when the public sees the face of cost, the meaning of participation becomes upright within them. On this path, steps are built: prepared by honest explanation, preceded by compensation that closes their effect, and governed by a ceiling that prices may not exceed. If inflation overflows, it is returned to its limit.

E — From the dominance of consumption to the virtue of sufficiency: crafts, agriculture, and the sea should be raised upon a covenant between the state and the people of enterprise. Whoever masters his work, rationalizes his consumption, and cares for the people of his country deserves the advantage of price and the kindness of the state. Whoever wastes or slackens must bear his share and find no excuse. What was spent yesterday on subsidies that exceeded their proper places should not be left as ash for the breeze to play with, but redirected toward resources that revive crafts, establish projects, and serve people collectively. Consumer giving should be replaced with development that grows livelihood and strengthens sufficiency. In this way, the blessing is transferred from hand to hand, not so individuals consume it in its day, but so it bears fruit for generations in their tomorrow. Development then rests on a working market, not on a depleting resource. What was waste yesterday becomes one of the tributaries of independence, and what was temporary assistance becomes a foundation for a solid economy that creates jobs, preserves welfare, and lightens the burden on the state’s shoulders when oil’s giving declines.

“Subsidies”: When Blessings Are Rationalized by Their Grace

In this way, provisions granted in some areas move from the face of accumulated giving into the light of choice. Spending is tightened where waste has multiplied, necessities retain their exception until the arm of capacity grows stronger, and tools of rationalization are distributed as keys of rescue from an approaching limit, not as whips of punishment.

Once feet are steady and meanings are firm, the time comes to establish the new contract: a safe review of prices that frightens no one, lasting compensation for people in need, and firmness toward those who treated people’s resources as permissible waste, taking from them according to the burdens they placed upon shoulders. The country should be viewed with an eye that takes account of its edges. Distance in some places doubles the cost of living; old shadows in housing burden people in the heat in ways modern homes do not; and justice requires that such differences be considered, for people are not identical copies.

Nothing is complete without transparency that heals doubt, a body that presents numbers clearly to people, and a council of people of opinion, industry, commerce, and the public who consult before the word is issued. In this way, hearts are protected from fear, and reform becomes the subject of a council’s discussion, not a ruling of surprise.

The bitter truth, which it is now time to say, is that “subsidies” in their current form may no longer be just among people, even if most people think they are. Loyalty to blessings requires returning them to a path that preserves and multiplies them, not to a path that consumes them and scatters them in the wind. The purpose is not to burden people, but to carry every blessing according to its measure: to enrich the needy with right, limit the appetite of the affluent with measure, and return the scale of the market to a balance that tilts only through good work or perfected craft.

If the hand of the state is sound in its distribution, and the hand of the people is sound in its reason, the two meet on one road: a road where blessing is preserved by gratitude, money is protected by justice, and every person bears the burden of their own excess before making others carry its consequences. Kuwait is able, by Allah’s help, to make subsidy reform a lesson for the region in gentleness that does not waste firmness, and justice that does not stir resentment. At that point it will be said: a blessing was rationalized and endured; justice was established and hearts found reassurance in it; and a house was rebuilt on foundations that do not lean.

O Allah, ordain for this nation a matter of right guidance.

Why is fiscal sustainability connected to the factor of cost?

Sustainability is not secured by revenue size alone; it depends on turning resources into renewable financial capacity while controlling recurring obligations. This makes cost an important test that separates temporary treatment from capacity that can endure.

How does subsidy reform, fairness, and gradualism affect Kuwait?

Its effect appears in how costs, incentives, and resources are managed, and in Kuwait's ability to turn decisions into sustainable value. The direct context is a reflective case for reforming subsidies with gradualism, targeted support, transparency, and justice that protects Kuwait’s blessings.

Why is public obligations connected to the factor of cost?

A state’s financial strength weakens as fixed obligations expand, because the room for reform narrows even when revenues appear large. This makes cost an important test that separates temporary treatment from capacity that can endure.

Why is public spending connected to the factor of cost?

Productive spending adds capacity or productivity, while spending that repeats obligations expands the burden without building new income. This makes cost an important test that separates temporary treatment from capacity that can endure.