Lebanon today stands on the edge of upheaval. The matter is not about the spilling over of the terrorist bombings from the Syrian war, nor even about another sectarian war in the country.

Lebanon is threatened by a social revolution, the first indicators of which appeared just days ago, in protests that swept the streets and paralyzed the country. Parliament and the Cabinet face two bitter choices: either agree to the unions’ demands and raise their positions and salaries, bringing disaster to the Lebanese economy, or refuse to bow to street pressure and preserve what’s left of the economy, but trigger a popular revolution.

This crisis comes as no surprise. The “escape forward” policy of borrowing in the absence of growth could not continue indefinitely, and it finally hit the wall. For the third year in a row, the deficit and the debt were growing beyond what revenues could justify. Meanwhile, the citizens’ purchasing power eroded and pushed them into despair. The previous government tried to buy time by enacting a new promotion and raise schedule and submitted it to parliament just before resigning. This was a major error, not because the demands weren’t fair, but because the money wasn’t available, neither in the treasury nor in the economy. Today, parliament is trying in vain to find funds, because resources have dried up and raising taxes will reduce revenues and grow the deficit even more.

Raising the value-added tax will harm the poor, who are the ones calling for higher salaries. It is as if the government takes with one hand and gives with the other. The proposal to increase taxes on profits from bank deposits will reduce transfers to the banking sector. Those profits recently declined, threatening another economic pillar: currency stability.