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The Precariat (edit)

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Eric Weinstein describes '''The Precariat''' as the class of scientists and thinkers trapped in economic fragility. Once architects of prosperity, they now live at the mercy of grants, bureaucracies, and [[Peer Injunction]]. Their work, a public good, creates wealth that never reaches them. Precarity silences dissent and breeds conformity; courage is unaffordable. Weinstein argues that restoring security and prosperity to scientists would reignite innovation, rebuild national strength, and renew civilization’s creative core. Wealth, he insists, is the antidote to corruption, fear, and decay in science.
== The Vanishing Contract ==
Eric Weinstein describes a class of scientists and thinkers who no longer possess the security and [[Academic Freedom]] once associated with intellectual life. They built the modern world but now live through unstable funding, short-term appointments, and dependence on institutional approval. He refers to them '''The Precariat''' — people whose professional value is clear yet whose economic position is fragile.
Weinstein points out that the postwar understanding between society and its scientists has disappeared. Stability and prestige have been replaced by grant cycles and bureaucratic oversight. What had been a revered calling has become a desperate contest for survival, an Academic Hunger Games.
== A Market Failure in Plain Sight ==
Weinstein argues that scientific labor is structurally undervalued. Researchers produce ''public goods'' — discoveries that benefit everyone and cannot be restricted — but receive compensation inconsistent with their societal value. He calls this a "market failure," since the system rewards administration and ownership more than creation.
He wrote in 2023 that scientists generate wealth that flows away from them:
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1626466602542854146
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=You see scientists create what economists call a MARKET FAILURE in the form of a PUBLIC GOOD. That is the VALUE our scientists create isn’t captured in the PRICE they can command even in a free market. Then we broke our contract to take care of them  by sharing downstream wealth.
|timestamp=6:20 AM · Feb 17, 2023
}}
This condition, he maintains, distorts priorities. It leads to a society that treats knowledge as an afterthought while consuming its results.
== The Price of Fear ==
Financial dependence changes how people speak and act. When scientists' jobs and grants are insecure, dissent becomes dangerous. Many remain silent to avoid jeopardizing their positions.
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1630978435068858368
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=A scientist needs to know she/he is not hanging by a thread. You need to be able to tell The Fauci/Collins/Daszaks of this world to Eff off. And survive. And Thrive.
We are paying for cheap science. It’s in your lungs now. Let’s start paying for real science. It’s much cheaper.
|thread=
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1630976735436238849
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=Scientists made us wealthy.
It is time to return the favor.
Stop producing '''precarious scientists'''.
|timestamp=5:02 PM · Mar 1, 2023
}}
|timestamp=5:08 PM · Mar 1, 2023
}}
Weinstein cites the pandemic years as evidence, reminding his audience that scientists repeated the views of administrative leaders such as Fauci and Collins instead of challenging them. The issue is structural: a precarious academic profession cannot remain intellectually open. There is no possibility of dissent without fear of losing everything.
== Cheap Science, Costly Consequences ==
Weinstein contends that modern research culture favors compliance and volume over originality. Budgets are cut, expectations rise, and institutions reward caution. He describes this as "cheap science" — a system that appears efficient yet yields diminished outcomes.
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1490951516085448705
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=I spent a lot of time in beautiful homes and second homes of older research scientists as a grad student.
We should be embarrassed how far into '''precariousness''' we pushed Generation X & Millennials. Our entire economy is now bet on bargain science provided way below market.#Enough
|timestamp=7:31 AM · Feb 8, 2022
}}
The consequence is declining trust and stagnation. Bureaucracy replaces discovery, and administrative logic overtakes radical curiosity and risk taking.
== The Expert Class in Decline ==
By 2025, Weinstein had broadened his focus from scientists to the larger "expert class." Journalists, academics, and professionals face the same conditions of dependence and instability.
He wrote:
<blockquote>
“''You aren’t having an expertise crisis. You’re having an '''artificial precariousness crisis''' imposed on your expert class by broken tacit agreements turning the community into expert witnesses who no longer can afford to put that expertise in public service.''” -'''Eric Weinstein''' on [https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1910686332512592304 X]
</blockquote>
Weinstein characterizes this as a structural process that turns independent expertise into managed opinion. When professional survival depends on sponsorship or compliance, the public’s access to independent judgment erodes.
== Restoring the Builders ==
Weinstein maintains that stability is essential for intellectual honesty. A scientist must be able to [[Academic Freedom|resist authority and still remain employed]]. Without that foundation, even the strongest institutions risk devolving into performance structures.
Eric refers to mid-20th-century science as an example of a time when careers were durable and inquiry was protected. Restoring the appropriate framework would include dramatically increasing [[Academic Freedom]] and compensation, removing the [[Extractive Elite]] from positions of power to replace them with the [[True Elite]], and returning to an older model of "[[Peer Review]]", where fiercely independent editors run journals.
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1971639845278961819
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=Editors who are distinguished fiercely independent researchers themselves, with huevos of steel, integrity, a cuture of collegiality, autonomy, money, and a variety of strong differing opinions.
|quote=
{{Tweet
|image=ha1331-profile.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/ha1331/status/1971633993000145312
|name=Henrik
|usernameurl=https://x.com/ha1331
|username=ha1331
|content=What sould replace peer review or would improve on the current system?
|timestamp=5:52 PM · Sep 26, 2025
}}
|timestamp=6:15 PM · Sep 26, 2025
}}
== The Stakes ==
Weinstein presents '''The Precariat''' as evidence of a [[Universal Institutional Betrayal|deep imbalance between creators and institutions]]. A society that cannot secure its knowledge producers risks losing its ability to generate new ideas.
He calls for the renewal of the social contract with the scientific and expert classes — one that links stability, freedom, and responsibility. Without that foundation, the engines of discovery falter, and those capable of truth are compelled to choose survival over candor.
== Quotes ==
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
''We need to unleash American scientists, get them secure, happy, well-fed. Rich. If you make your scientists, relatively wealthy and prosperous—they don't have to be ridiculously wealthy and prosperous, but right now, they're '''precarious'''. They're part of '''The Precariat'''. If we did that, I think what we could do is we could usher in a renaissance that would filter down to technology startups and the whole tech ecosystem.
''We need to unleash American scientists, get them secure, happy, well-fed. Rich. If you make your scientists, relatively wealthy and prosperous—they don't have to be ridiculously wealthy and prosperous, but right now, they're '''precarious'''. They're part of '''The Precariat'''. If we did that, I think what we could do is we could usher in a renaissance that would filter down to technology startups and the whole tech ecosystem.
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== Related Pages ==
== Related Pages ==
* [[Academic Freedom]]
* [[Academic Freedom]]
* [[Anti-Expert]]
* [[Anti-Fragility]]
* [[Extractive Elite]]
* [[FU Money]]
* [[FU Money]]
* [[Peer Injunction]]
* [[Peer Injunction]]
* [[Peer Review]]
* [[Peer Review]]
* [[True Elite]]




[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
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