"and where entire [American] communities are being ravaged by an opioid epidemic. These people are not going to become software programmers. So now what?"
Well, The American plan these days appears to be to teach creationism in schools, scream 'socialism!' every time someone wants the poor to be better off, make sure they have access to guns, pretend trickle down will work, and make the poor really mad at sexual and visible minorities, especially anyone brown, all while protecting the top 20% in all ways possible until civil insurrection becomes inevitable, but not socialist revolution--it'll be attacks on minorities and media and intellectuals.  Bernie Sanders was their last chance.  Ciao, America.