Disenchanted with Buddhism Im nearly 50 years old and so far in my life I have never found a sense of belonging or any sense of purpose. I haven't found a way to work that offers any sense of contribution or meaning. I have worked in low skilled low paid jobs struggling to make ends meet for over 30 years and going nowhere.  Now I'm at a point where I feel I just cannot do what is required of me in this society any longer. It's soul destroying. I have no motivation or desire to get out of bed and go to some mindless crappy job just so that I can eat and pay my bills while other people make billions for doing nothing and live in the lap of luxury. There has to be more to life than this. I have tried to find other things to do that are more rewarding such as creative endeavours but failed to find the confidence and determination to go out and make it happen and so I just end up back in the same crappy jobs. 

So how does this relate to Buddhism you might be wondering. Well I guess I turned to Buddhism in desperation. I felt so bored and disenchanted with life that I thought there must be another way to see things. Buddhism seemed to offer that. So I begun meditating and went on some retreats. I begun learning how to watch the mind. 

I have had a lot of psychological insight into the how I am the way I am because of my family etc over the years but this is more from reading than from meditating. 
I thought that Buddhism would give me some sense of freedom  and help me to push through and change my life in a positive way but after 6 years I haven't really changed much and now I feel disappointed and disenchanted with Buddhism because it seems to promise so much but deliver so little. The only thing I can say is that I have learnt to react a little less. To notice impatience, anger and other difficult feelings and not react to them. Isn't there more to it than this? 
I guess right now I am experiencing a range of difficult feelings and Buddhism would say notice how they are impermanent, notice how averse to them you are, notice how they are not self etc. So I do this but it doesn't make it any easier. They still keep arising and they are still really difficult, uncomfortable and painful and I still want to not feel this way. So then what?
Buddhism is not the answer. Buddhism is not the problem, either.

You turned to Buddhism looking for a quick fix to your life, and now that you haven't found that quick fix after 6 years you are lashing out. I get the impression there is a lot of pent up anger in you. Anger at the world, anger at your job, anger at the so-called "better off" people who earn millions for doing nothing, and now anger at Buddhism for not fixing it for you.

Buddhism is not a quick fix. It is not the answer.

Buddhism is merely a toolkit which enables you to fix yourself.

Meditation is not Buddhism. Going on retreats is not Buddhism. Reading the Pali Canon is no Buddhism. You can meditate all day every day for the rest of your life and not find happiness. You can read every Buddhist work ever written and not find happiness. 

Turning to any religion or philosophy and expecting it to put right everything that is wrong is not how to make things better. All you are doing is finding a new target to point the finger of blame at when it doesn't "do it for you".

Meditation doesn't create happiness. It merely calms and clears the mind washing away the unimportant cares of the world and allow you to focus it on what really matters. The mind is "like a rampaging elephant". Only when it is calmed and tamed can you sit on its back and make it go where you want. Meditation calms and trains that elephant. 

You can read and learn every bit of musical theory you can get your hands on, but it won't make you a concert pianist. Only practice will do that for you. It's like that with Buddhism. You can know all about it, but if you do not practice it (and by that I don't mean meditating every day), Buddhism will not do anything for you.

The majority of people's problems with the world - not finding their place in it, not being happy with their role in life, not liking what they are doing, etc - is not because the world is at fault. It is their view of the world that is wrong. "With our thoughts we shape the world" is one of the truest phrases ever uttered. You cannot change the world. You cannot even change other people. The only thing you can change is yourself, and that starts with changing how you view the world.

No, it's not an easy task. But that's what meditation is for - to help you keep focused on that task. 

As an example:

"You have been in a succession of low-paid menial jobs and don't earn enough to make ends meet."

There are two things wrong with that statement, and both highlight the problems of your world view - of your perception of life. You are not in a "menial" job. You have the good fortune to be in a job that is free of stress and responsibility. Do you really want to be paid lots of money for doing next to nothing? No one is paid lots of money for doing next to nothing. They are paid lots of money to take the fall when things go wrong. They are paid lots of money to make the business decisions that affect the lives of thousands of employees. I for one wouldn't want the stress and responsibility that rests on their shoulders, not for all the tea in China.

You don't have a menial job. You have an easy, care free, job.

If you aren't happy with where you are it is through a desire to be something you are not. A desire to be someone else. You are who you are, not who the media says you ought to be. In the words of Crosby, Stills and Nash: "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with". Most misery in life comes from wanting what you can't have - and if/when you get it you then want something more. That wanting, that craving, is, as Buddha taught us, the cause of all suffering in the world. When you let go of that craving for something else and accept who and what you are, that is when peace and happiness begins.

And you can't make ends meet? So move the ends. Some people get a longer piece of string, and you know what happens to long pieces of string: they always end up in a tangled mess. Some steal someone else's string and tie it to their own. 

Or you can try tying it around something smaller. Do you really need a new fancy mobile phone? Do you need that pair of earrings? 

A Buddhist Monk has nothing except a razor and a spare robe. My favourite teacher, Ajahn Brahm, tells a story (one of many, he does love his stories. You should look him up on Youtube, his way of teaching will open your eyes). I forget if it was actually about himself or another monk, but it basically goes like this (I am no story teller, so forgive me):

A monk, it may have been Ajahn Brahm, or his teacher, Ajahn Chah, or someone else, I forget, had been giving a talk to the lay people. It was a good inspiring talk, and afterwards one of the lay people came up to the monk full of gratitude and wanting to do something in return. Monks aren't allowed to have money, so he said to the monk "I have $100 here for you. I know you can't have it, but if you tell me what you'd like I'll go and buy it for you."

So the monk starts thinking: what would I like? The first thing that comes to mind is "a piece of paper to write a list on". Then he thinks "And a pen to write the list with". It starts to get dark, so he thinks "a torch so I can see at night would be good too". Before long his list has grown and grown and grown, including such things as a cushion to sit on while meditating, a new bowl for the alms round, etc.

The next day the lay person comes back to see what the monk would like him to buy. The monk says to him:

"Don't you ever do anything like that to me again! I was in torment all night, tossing and turning, making a list of things to get. It was hell!"

... Or something to that effect anyway. The point is, when you start becoming attached to the world like that it only breeds more attachment. And that attachment breeds suffering. It leads to a desire to have more, a desire to change who/where you are through the accumulation of "things". 

It is only when you start being a Buddhist, instead of learning about Buddhism, that your life will change - and that change will be instantaneous and surprising.

I myself rarely sit and meditate. However I am almost constantly meditating. Meditation isn't just about sitting in the lotus position going "Om". It's about being still within yourself. I am meditating right now whilst writing this. My mind is calm, my thoughts are clear. I'm financially broke. Both Trump and Kim Jong-Un have silly hair. Life is great.