If you don't know what I'm talking about, turn on the television. You're bound to see images of burning cars and vandalized property on every news channel.

The protestors behind this call themselves the "yellow vests." They took to the streets to protest a recent petroleum tax. But it's clear that they're upset about a lot more than just that.

To find out what's really fanning the flames in Paris, I got Doug Casey on the phone. Below, Doug tells me why the petroleum tax was merely the "spark"… and why similar protests could flare up across Western Europe and even the United States.

We hope you enjoy.

Justin: Doug, what's going on in Paris? Is a recent petroleum tax really behind the protests? Or is something else fueling this social unrest?

Doug: The gasoline tax is just the spark. Tinder has been building up for a long time.

In France, the state takes about 45% of all revenue in taxes. It's got about the highest taxes in the world. The average Frenchman's tax load is twice as high as the average American's. Worse, the taxes are used to support massive and onerous bureaucracies in both Paris and Brussels.