The old social contract is crumbling. Used to be: get your degree, lock in a job for life. That's dead. Stable work meant you could buy a house—not anymore. A house used to mean you could start a family. That door's closing too. The traditional ladder is broken at every rung. We're looking for alternatives now, and that's exactly why many are turning their attention to decentralized systems and new economic models that might actually work.