IMO the simple, and inevitable, fact is that demographics are on a collision course with technology and industrialization, and the industrial model of employment. Bottom line is that computerization, automation and industrial design all point toward far more being produced in less time by fewer people.

The question is: What do you do with excess populations?


Combine all this with the cultural contempt for manual labor, which keep people out of menial jobs, even as illegal aliens take them, and a cost of living that is so high a low wage job is simply not practical if you're not willing to sleep a dozen in a walk-up efficiency and working off the books.

Even education can be a dead end because you just don't need that many PhDs. At least three of my friends with PhDs, have had long stretches of unemployment. All three have told me they don't report their education simply because it keeps them from getting lower level jobs. It is a recipe for frustration and anger.