Page "Iranian Revolution" Paragraph 29

The oil boom of the 1970s produced " alarming " increase in inflation and waste and an " accelerating gap " between the rich and poor, the city and the country, along with the presence of tens of thousands of unpopular skilled foreign workers.

Many Iranians were also angered by the fact that the shah's family was the foremost beneficiary of the income generated by oil, and the line between state earnings and family earnings blurred.

By 1976, the shah had accumulated upward of one billion dollars from oil revenue ; his family — including sixty-three princes and princesses — had accumulated between five and twenty billion dollars ; and the family foundation controlled approximately three billion dollars By mid-1977 economic austerity measures to fight inflation disproportionately affected the thousands of poor and unskilled male migrants to the cities working construction.

Culturally and religiously conservative, many went on to form the core of revolution's demonstrators and " martyrs ".