The Social Contract

Submission 11,248

About

The Social Contract is a parody infographic meme format that illustrates monetary exchanges and the flow of taxpayer money and in a certain country or society, with the central figure carrying the largest burden usually being an exhausted male in their 30s. Originally used to humorously illustrate the flow of money in European countries, the format saw a surge in popularity in November 2024 and inspired parodies.

Origin

The name of the meme format refers to the concept of the "social contract", first discussed by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in a 1762 book of the same name, in which he contemplates how free individuals can co-exist in society, bound together by an implied contract.^[1] The meme format reduces the concept to simply the flow of money from productive members of society to less productive ones.

On April 29th, 2020, X^[2] user @sidounours posted the original, French version of the meme which illustrated the distribution of taxpayer money from a 30-year-old French male named Nicolas through various social services and programs, supporting elder citizens and a 25-year-old immigrant, and ending up being spent on goods and services used by them (shown below).

On September 30th, 2022, X^[3] user @karnoctis republished it, presenting it as document by consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

On February 5th, 2023, X^[4] user @bouliboulibouli posted a collection of four earliest found examples of the meme, including the French version as well as British, Spanish, and Portugal versions (British version shown below). The post garnered over 1,900 reposts and 9,100 likes in nine months.

Spread

The infographic format started gaining further spread online in early 2024. On March 9th, 2024, X^[5] user @KraZMagazin posted a German version of the meme that received over 250 reposts and 1,500 likes in eight months (shown below).

On July 23rd, 2024, X^[6] user @Neerlandist posted a Dutch version of the meme that received over 100 reposts and 910 likes in four months (shown below).

Starting on November 14th, 2024, X^[7]^[8] user @kunley_drukpa shared multiple versions of the meme online, including Chinese, African and United States version. The latter (shown below), posted on November 17th, 2024, garnered over 1,500 reposts and 18,000 likes on X^[9] / Twitter in one week.

In the following days, multiple versions of the meme were shared by users on X / Twitter, with some examples breaking away from the original formula.