i’ve been thinking about something that really bothers me.
human civilization, everything we’ve built is based on a social contract. we told people: “if you do your part, you’ll be taken care of.” you don’t have to be a scientist or a genius. you could be an artist, a teacher, a plumber - whatever your role, you’d still be a respected, functioning part of society. in exchange, you’d get food, shelter, and stability. a place in the system.
but now that pact feels broken. a sentiment often shared by a majority of people.
let's see what they say. a certain section of society - let’s say the tech elite, the “technology brothers” - they’re threatening the livelihoods of the rest of us. they’re developing tools and technologies so fast, it’s not just about innovation anymore - it’s about obsolescence. and the message they send is clear: “you’re on your own. keep up, or get out of the way.”
but most people don’t know how to “keep up.” they weren’t trained for this. they don’t have insider knowledge, capital, or even time. so what do they feel? fear. deep, existential fear. and resentment. why wouldn’t they? you’re pricing them out of the opportunity to even try to catch up. you’re telling them the deal they grew up believing in was a lie.
and i don’t think it's because the people hate capitalism. that’s not it. they hate being priced out of capitalism. most people were okay with inequality, so long as they believed they had a shot. that they could improve their situation if they worked hard. but now? they’re priced out of education, out of housing, out of the job market, out of tools and access and opportunity. the dream isn’t just slipping away - it’s being actively re-coded without them in mind.
and it’s even worse for people who did follow the rules. like engineers.
remember when studying engineering used to mean you’d have a good future? that it was the golden path to a stable, well-paying job? people worked their asses off, thinking they were buying their entry into prosperity. so many joined engineering colleges, studied hard, trusted the system.
and now? we have more engineers than engineering jobs. so companies treat them like parts - replaceable. disposable. layoffs are common. new grads enter a flooded market where salaries are low, jobs are unstable, and there’s no dignity in the thing they were once told was their ladder to the middle class. it’s not just a financial loss - it’s a betrayal of trust.
if engineers, who were once seen as the chosen ones of the knowledge economy, are now being replaced, priced out, and rendered disposable, then what hope do the rest have? what about artists, blue-collar workers, gig workers, caregivers, clerks, tailors, drivers, writers, translators? from the vast parts of our society? the people who weren’t even promised wealth - just basic dignity?
for them, the betrayal is not just economic - it’s existential. because they were never even allowed to dream of “getting rich.” they weren’t asking for much. they were promised survival, not abundance. they were told: "contribute to society, and you’ll have a place in it." and now even that place is vanishing.
a poet gets replaced by an algorithm. a truck driver by an autonomous vehicle. a teacher by some ai tutor. a call center worker by a chatbot. a street artist by generative image models. it's not just that they lose their jobs - it’s that they’re being told: “your existence is now inefficient.”
think about how humiliating that is.
they’re not just priced out of capitalism - they’re being priced out of meaning. what they did is now seen as cute, outdated, “inefficient.” so what happens when people no longer see a future where they can matter? they don’t just get angry - they lose their sense of worth. and that’s how you get collapse - not from poverty alone, but from mass disillusionment.
and here’s something people don’t talk about enough:
"this isn’t just another industrial revolution."
every time someone tries to defend all this chaos by saying “oh, but people also feared machines during the industrial revolution,” i feel like they’re missing the point entirely.
yes, we’ve been through technological upheaval before. the luddites fought the machines because those machines took their jobs. but even back then, we were still dealing with a world where human labor, physical or mental, mattered. we were still at the center of the equation.
but this is different.
this time, we’re not just automating physical effort. we’re automating thinking. creativity. emotion. decision-making. we’re not replacing the loom - we’re replacing the weaver, the designer, the critic, the teacher, the friend, the therapist.
this isn’t just a few sectors being disrupted. it’s not just factory workers, or clerks or artisans. this wave touches every single profession. it rewrites what it means to work, to create, to contribute, and even to exist meaningfully in a society.
and during the industrial revolution, the system still had room to absorb displaced people. new industries were born. new roles emerged. but now, what if we run out of new roles before we run out of people? what if this wave doesn’t create more ladders, but just more winners and more discard piles?
you can’t fix this with just “reskilling.”
you can’t just tell a 45-year-old truck driver to become a prompt engineer or a blockchain analyst. not everyone can pivot. not everyone has the luxury of time, money, or mental bandwidth to “reinvent” themselves every few years just to stay economically valid.
and if the economy now only rewards the top 1% of creators, thinkers, and coders - then what happens to the rest?
this is systemic. it’s cultural. it’s civilizational.
and pretending it’s “just like last time” is intellectual laziness.
so when people see “tech bros” getting rich off startups, crypto, ai, and automation - what they feel isn’t just jealousy. it’s rage. because it’s not just that these guys are getting rich - it’s how. they’re getting rich by building tools that displace the very people who were told this was the path to success. engineers are being priced out by the same industry they helped build.
and here’s the worst part: the people pushing this disruption seem blind to it. they genuinely don’t understand why they’re hated. they think they’re liberators - pushing progress, “moving fast and breaking things.” but they’re breaking people, too. breaking the social fabric. and when you break the social contract, people stop feeling bound by it. why be civil? why follow rules? if society abandons you, maybe you have no reason to be “a good citizen” anymore.
at the same time, i don’t want to be anti-progress. i actually believe we should let the nerds build. i want humanity to go as far as it can - faster, smarter, bolder. but we have a moral duty to make sure everyone knows how to adapt. to give people the map, not just tell them to find one.
but here’s the paradox. if you overregulate - like europe seems to be doing - you stifle progress. you end up halting human potential under the guise of safety. but if you underregulate, people get abandoned, angry, and sometimes violent. in both cases, people feel powerless.
so what’s the answer?
should we have a central, global body that tracks new tech and actively helps society adapt - like some kind of “future readiness” agency? or is that just going to turn into another bureaucratic mess? where’s the line between smart protection and dumb interference?
and here’s the scary question i keep coming back to: what if we’re already too late?
what if the pact is already broken, and now we’re just managing the fallout? maybe the “next phase” of society isn’t balance - it’s collapse, restructuring, or some brutal realignment of who gets to be “valuable” and who doesn’t.
or maybe, just maybe, there’s still time to write a new contract. one that acknowledges chaos, but contains it. that welcomes growth, but doesn’t discard people. one that doesn’t treat citizens like software versions you can just deprecate.
i don’t know the answer. but i know this: if we don’t figure it out, society won’t break neatly. it’ll fracture messily. and no one - tech bros included - is safe from that.
so if the new social contract is going to mean anything, it has to speak to all these people - not just engineers and coders. it has to answer:
“where do i fit?”
“how do i contribute?”
“what do i get in return?”
“and what protects me from being thrown away the moment i'm ‘less efficient’?”
because if the answer is, “you don’t fit anymore,” then the rest of the system has no moral authority left to demand law, order, or loyalty.
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