Oh don't be so gloom, there is still work for everyone, it seems. Whether it's the kind of work one seeks is another matter, but there is plenty of work as long as the standards are set low enough. Which is not bad btw -- imho, if a person starts at a "low" level they have a good chance of growing, versus if they start at a level when they cannot really perform, and as a result can hardly learn. (I am talking about software engineering; other disciplines may be different. And I may be wrong about software engineering too, this is just speculation based on personal observations.)
The grandparent comment is an Exhibit A "pull up the ladders" sort of attitude. It's a good thing, not a bad thing, that motivated people can grab the lowest rung and pull themselves up. I started out writing BASIC, moved on to C and PHP, and am now working in Python and JavaScript. It's a good thing that I didn't listen to advice that said "you have to be a computer science student to write programs." I could study algorithms while I was doing entry-level work, and do things like read CLRS and Skiena.
