The three rules of the social contract

Citizenship and the needs-based society

This is loosely based on a talk I gave at last month Civic Future’s summit in Cambridge.

Almost two-thirds of people think that Britain’s social contract is broken. A majority believe that diversity is eroding our national identity, while a third think that some sort of communist revolution is needed. My sense from reading history is that this didn’t turn out too well on previous occasions, but it’s hard to dispute that there are reasons for public discontent.

Most people will be aware of a popular meme that first appeared in 2020, called the Social Contract, which illustrated a system designed to make a young taxpayer support old people, welfare recipients and immigrants. Poor ‘Nicolas, 30’ pays for everything and gains nothing in return. The meme was in existence for a few years before becoming the subject of various comment pieces in 2024; it’s now gone into the annals of meme history, but it was popular for a long time because it succinctly expressed an obvious truth - that the social contract has broken three unwritten rules.

A social contract should distinguish between citizens and foreigners, it should reward hard work and punish freeloading, and it should serve as a compact between the generations. Instead, it has become a Ponzi scheme which allocates resources based on supposed need.