As long as energy is plentiful, a society can invest in complexity [Globalism-editor]; but once energy supplies reach their limit or start to decline, complexity [Globalism-editor] becomes less and less affordable. (Energy includes food supplies, labor, and fuels) - Joseph Tainter

When Rome became an empire, it was a solar energy society. The public works, education, the army, and social benefits for citizens required more and more money. In those days, this necessitated financing. They achieved this through taxation and debasing the currency (inflation). Taxes eventually became so high that landowners abandoned their farms, causing food production to decline (as seen in Zimbabwe).

Each time in history there was a major economic crisis and war, complex society was saved because it was able to switch to a more economical source of energy: from Solar energy to Wood, from Wood to Coal (steam), from Coal to Oil (liquid energy engine), from Oil to Nuclear............?

When a price becomes too high to maintain complexity, a society can choose to become less complex. A recent example of a society becoming less complex was the Soviet Union in 1990. The Soviet Union then granted autonomy to its formerly controlled states, lowering the cost of government while allowing Russia to maintain enough military power to protect itself and feed its people.

More recently, the same phenomenon was seen when the Czech Republic and Slovakia fell apart.  Because maintaining these societies at a high level of complexity is more expensive, political resistance is slowly but surely diminishing. We see similar evolutions in Belgium, Spain, and France (Basques, Catalonia)

With ever-increasing energy prices and worsening economic problems in Europe and North America, we may see less complex political structures in the future.

Within the EU, Greece, Italy, and Spain have enormous financial problems. Spain and Greece, for example, should be able to devalue their currency. However, as EU members, they cannot take such action. In economic terms, this implies that the only possible corrective action will be a recession and probably a depression: if the value of fiat money cannot be adjusted, then the value of goods will.

For North America, some writers are proposing the “Amero”. Under this system, Canada, the USA, and Mexico would fall into a single financial system. The Amero could then compete with the Euro. In essence, it would be a similar action to what Europe experienced with the EU several years ago. However, discussions about an Amero are moot, and we'll probably see the opposite: the secession of the USA and the advent of local-state currencies.

Globalism created the idea of the euro and marketed it, since it was a win-win for both entities at the time. As explained in earlier articles, Globalism will now have to reverse course under pressure from higher energy prices.   In all cases, Globalism can no longer survive in an environment where energy prices skyrocket.

Electricity (and quite often oil and its derivatives) has become a means of collecting taxes. (click to enlarge)

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