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What's left out of this discussion is how illegal aliens have taken over the spots that our young folks should be working in.

Oh; did I say illegal aliens?

I meant to say Very efficient machines.

After retirement, this city kid moved to the country, where my neighbors are Corn, Soybean and Wheat. My nearest HUMAN neighbors are at least one field away.

Just a few generations ago, they were tended by a vast army of men on small machines, and now 1 fella in a HUGE machine can get the work done amazingly fast!

It didn't take as much 'schooling' back then to get the work done (yet the schools produced BETTER educated people!) so when the amount of field workers needed decreased, we sent the kids into 'higher' education. (Translation: take them OUT of the workforce for 4 years. Naturally, this required more support folks - teachers, administrators - whatever)

So NOW we have a vast army of 'educated' folks, coming back into the working world, with NOWHERE to use their 'education'!

What to do?

Indeed. I've raised that point many times. We're heading toward a post-scarcity society in which machines can farm, and mine, and manufacture. We're going to have at least adequate levels of "stuff" without much need for human labor. There is a serious risk that we will have a welfare society in which a very large percentage (50+% unemployment?) of the people sit at home and wait for their government checks and government cheese.

To me, it's a bit like the atom bomb. War-making ability advanced to the point of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and then then Great Powers sort of looked at each other and asked "Now what??"
If our technology gives us access to sustenance but takes away our ability or need to make a contribution, we have to ask ourselves "Now what??"

I see it as the big issue of the 21st century.