- Noam Chomsky observed that most workplaces are 'totalitarian systems' where individuals lack democratic control over conditions like salary and surveillance, making them subordinate.
- The promise of human capital theory—that education leads to security—is failing: higher education advantages are eroding, with many graduates underemployed or unemployed in wealthy economies.
- AI is bypassing the educational bargain by substituting human labor, reducing entry-level hiring, and undermining professional pathways, yet policies still focus on employability and skills.
- Worker insecurity benefits the economic order, as noted by Alan Greenspan, and is a sustained feature, not accidental, in a model dependent on anxiety to prevent wage demands.
- Education policy prioritizes economic participation and digitization, but universities now mirror insecurity through high student debt without guarantees of stability or professional security.
- Historically, higher education fostered critical inquiry and public participation, but this is threatened by AI integration and employability-focused reforms that undermine independent thought.
- Education should not just prepare people for insecure, undemocratic work but cultivate judgment to recognize power, resist manipulation, and shape ethical AI, as these are hard to automate.
- The crisis is political: society has prepared people for insecure work while calling it progress, and education must now encourage questioning and refusing such conditions, not adaptation.