The Global Debt Clock at The Economist website indicates the debt of sovereign governments will exceed $50 trillion by the end of 2012. That’s nearly double what it was just five or six years ago. The welfare state is on a collision course with fiscal reality.

Attar was a Persian chemist and poet. He told the story of a king who asked his wise men to invent something that could make him happy when he was sad and sober-minded when he was otherwise disposed. In response, his sages fashioned a gold ring etched with the words, “This too shall pass.”

“This too shall pass” is what growing numbers of historians and economists are saying about the welfare state. The books they are writing have titles like “After the Welfare State” and “Never Enough: [The] Limitless Welfare State.”

The term “welfare state” refers to governments using borrowed money to maintain cradle-to-grave social programs. Many would say that whether the welfare state is a good idea or bad idea is a matter of opinion, but the economic reality brought on by government debt caused by welfare state spending is not a matter of opinion. It’s a fact. And facts are stubborn things.

The Greek economy is shrinking because of the welfare state. The economies of Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Malta, and Portugal are also shrinking. There are others.

Japan, the most indebted nation on the planet, has a debt-to-GDP ratio of 221%. The Japanese people owe more than double the amount of all the goods and services produced annually within their borders. Debt-to-GDP in Greece is around 160%. Portugal is 121%. Italy is 120%. Countries with a debt-to-GDP ratio between 80% and 120% include France, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, the UK, and Canada.

A few years ago, ABC News calculated the entire U.S. cost of WWII at $3.6 trillion inflation adjusted dollars. In the past four years, Barack Obama has racked up four straight deficits totalling $5.4 trillion.

The Global Debt Clock at The Economist website indicates the debt of sovereign governments will exceed $50 trillion by the end of 2012. That’s nearly double what it was just five or six years ago. The welfare state is on a collision course with fiscal reality.

Canadian governments owe $1.5 trillion, making Canada’s real debt-to-GDP ratio 86.9%. Quebec and Ontario combined owe more than half a trillion dollars. And many are beginning to ask at what point Quebec’s debt will affect Alberta and the rest of the country. It would be naïve for energy-producing provinces to assume that the culmination of these financial factors will be anything other than the implementation of a massive federal energy tax.

Canada’s unfunded public sector pension liabilities exceed $300 billion. That’s more money than Ottawa spends every year, or roughly eight times the annual spending of the Alberta government. It’s a massive financial obligation that will soon sweep over rank and file taxpayers including the kids who have not yet graduated from high school.

In the United States, the unfunded liability for public sector pensions and benefits stands at $5.8 trillion. Unfunded liabilities for key government programs like Social Security exceed $60 trillion—more than all the indebtedness of all the world’s sovereign governments combined.

It is a fact that current levels of government spending and government debt are unsustainable, and facts are stubborn things. That’s why, when it comes to the policies and key practices of the welfare state, “this too shall pass.”

See also: USA Today, U.S. funding for future promises lags by trillions.

See also: NCPA, US Federal unfunded liabilities total $84 trillion.