The New Caste System Is a Subscription
At $10 a month, you get autocomplete. At $100, you replace an assistant. At $1,000, you replace a department. At $10,000, you are the company. Product lines built and shipped by systems you run from a laptop. Margins that would embarrass your competitors.
You can't jump tiers by working harder. You jump by spending more. The returns at each level fund the next level. The person at $1,000 generates enough surplus to reach $10,000. The person at $10 never generates enough to reach $100.
The old caste system was decided by birth. Your family chose it centuries before you arrived. The new one works the same way. You don't pick your subscription tier. Your existing wealth picks it for you.
But this one moves faster. The old system took generations to harden. AI compounds monthly. The gap between a $10 user and a $10,000 user after one year isn't 1,000x the spend. They're different economic species.
And when the gap gets wide enough, people won't just accept it. Compute becomes the resource worth fighting over. Worth stealing for. Communities will pool money, cut corners, break laws to get their people onto a higher tier. Because they've seen what happens to those stuck at $10. You don't fall behind. You disappear.
Land decided wealth for centuries. Then capital did. Then information. Now compute. Every transition looked like a level playing field at the start. None stayed that way. This one won't either.
The subscription tier you can afford today is the caste you'll belong to tomorrow.