What I mean is that I grew up listening to my parents (and others) preaching the line that getting yourself educated, bettering yourself, was the way to improve your chances for long-term success. Something has gotten out of whack in the sense that appears such is no longer the case. So what do we tell the best and brightest today, that are fully capable of achieving very high levels of learning and skills, only to be thrown out on the street when their employer, private industry or the public sector, tells them they're not wanted or no good. Real innovations come from people who have some measure of intelligence. Your average textile worker or steel mill employee, while perfectly fine people and good workers, aren't the ones who are going to advnace fields like aerospace, semiconductors, materials science, systems engineering, energy resource development, etc. I see the devastation for individuals and families and have all the sympathy in the world for those individual tragedies, but am also concerned about the larger picture, of where this country will be in 50 years if we throw away the intellectual capital it has taken decades to garner, all because some politician decides more votes can be bought by closing down a productive and useful research program, or some corporate bean counter can earn a $100K bonus by shaving a tenth of a point off their corporate budget and add that much more to the proverbial bottom line for that quarter.
If you have to get affirmation of your worth from other people via employment and degrees, you really are going to be in bad shape. Note that Bill Gates is a college dropout. Being out of work doesn't mean you're no good - it means you don't have a job.