Bill Bonner on welfare-state realities.

Much like myself, Mr. Bill Bonner has some amazing insights and a gift for expressing them clearly:

We don’t take anything for granted. And we know that we are sometimes right and sometimes wrong. And always in doubt. Still, the social welfare governments of the modern world are not equipped to deal with this challenge. They were designed for growing economies, not stagnant ones. They were all created in a period of growth — made possible by the widespread introduction of cheap fossil fuels. That period is over. Temporarily or permanently. And the dinosaurs of the growth era are unable to adapt to the colder climate of the new age of austerity.

Here in France, for example, they’ve already taxed the rich about as much as the rich can stand. And they’ve robbed future generations as much as they could get away with. What else can they do?

"Read more: Bernanke's Plot to Overthrow the US Dollar." By Bill Bonner, The Daily Reckoning, 9/30/11.