Yves here. Unrest, both organized and random, is set to explode as more and more suffer a sudden drop in their living standard and have to husband expenses carefully or even struggle to survive. This Belgian strike looks to be the fallout of the war in Ukraine, with higher energy costs producing lower growth and deindustrialization. That shrinks tax receipts as government expenses rise. And the easiest remedy is to push the costs on to citizens, who even in countries with unions, are less powerful than local and international businesses. In other words, planned and time-limited protests, even if intended to impose real costs like a general strike, are likely to look tidy and orderly compared to what is in store. By Stephen Prager, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams Much of Belgium ground to a halt on Tuesday as tens of thousands of workers flooded the streets of Brussels as part of a general strike against government austerity measures.…