In recent years, a bleak picture has started to emerge of people in left-behind America. In communities with few jobs and a raging opioid crisis, young men in particular have retreated in great numbers, simply dropping out of life altogether, spending their days playing video games with no end in sight. Funding for local educational programs has been slashed, and the for-profit institutions that prey on them require taking out massive loans and rarely provide any sort of useful education. In the meantime, skilled manufacturing jobs sit empty and productivity decreases, because there remains a wide gap and no clear path for those who could learn the skills but cannot figure out how.