My ideal societal contract would be something like this: I want to be free to focus my energy on my work, relationship, and interests. I want the state to focus on programs that reduce the need for individuals like me to have to focus their energy on anything else.
In practice, this is stuff like equal access to healthcare, education, childcare, social security, time-off...
In the US, access to these things is not a given, and they often end up as rewards, distributed very unevenly. ...Even worse, this leads to anxiety/worry/focus by individuals like me to try and fix or mitigate those problems.
As you mention, the scale of change in the way the US operates seems unlikely anytime soon; at least for me, removing myself (my skills/labor/knowledge) seems like as good a way as any to try and coerce change.