Philosophically, not comprehension-wise, you have completely lost me. But that’s okay, life is like that sometimes.
Best wishes for the week ahead.
Not everybody has the flexibility, foresight, and self-control of an upper middle class person with a Master's Degree, where everyone in the family went to college.
Nor the support network, nor the general sense of how to navigate in life.
What happens when people whose whole life was "working at the mill" and don't have savings, don't have any other skills, are told that "the Mill is closing, and it's your fault because you're deplorable": and all the other trade jobs they could transition too, are suddenly flooded with foreigners who work for less?
And there was no warning.
After a few years, yes, you'd lose hope.
That being said, there are communities and families which have been pretty dysfunctional even with blue-collar jobs; loss of the jobs is not an excuse. Think proverbial "Florida Man..."
Peace be with you and the (some all grown up now) tax-chickadees.