Street protests have brought the politics of confrontation into the streets of North America and Europe. After buying votes for decades by spending themselves deep into debt, governments are now realizing the true cost of an addiction to unaffordable “entitlements.”

The datelines and details change, but the script stays the same. Old-school leftists and 21st century anarchists march together through a crowded downtown, paralyzing busy cities. The most radical wear masks and experiment with terror tactics. The protesters’ demands are vague and ever-changing, but one theme is constant: someone else must pay to increase their public paychecks, benefits and subsidies.

This wave began to build two years ago when the European Union began pressuring Greece to curb its lavish spending and lenient work rules. Protests began immediately as leftists denounced any reform as “austerity.” Strikes skyrocketed. Massive rallies punctuated by fire-bombings shut down cities. Today’s current Euro crisis could lead to even wider civil disorder this summer.

Confrontational tactics spread last year as America’s angry fringe took to the streets. Although the ludicrous Occupy movement never found a coherent message despite the help it received from labor federations and other wealthy benefactors, it did shut several West Coast ports briefly. In Wisconsin, unions assembled up to 100,000 protesters in disruptive attempts to stymie public sector union reforms.

This month, a law enforcement deployment complete with “sound cannons” and what the Associated Press called “the most extensive surveillance system in the United States” was needed to protect the NATO summit in Chicago from thousands of radical protesters with almost as many causes. Even that extraordinary effort failed to keep the streets open. Marchers battled with police and tied up the Loop. Businesses and schools were forced to close for days. President Obama, anticipating the chaos, convened his G-8 economic summit in Camp David instead of Chicago.

Closer to home, downtown Montreal is a battle zone every night as thousands of public university students protest a tuition increase. Three months of rowdy marches have cost merchants and small restaurants untold millions of dollars in sales. Police have arrested hundreds; smoke bombs have closed the subway; vandals regularly smash shop windows. The tuition hike is about $20 per month.

The trend will continue. Here in New Hampshire, Occupy protesters regularly disrupted campaign stops before the January primary; expect more trouble nationally as November’s election nears.

In an odd way, these maddening protests do serve a purpose. They are a reminder that every attempt to cut public spending will enrage those whose too-comfortable lives depend on someone else’s tax dollars. These confrontations are part of the price we must now pay for allowing government to grow out of control for so long.