That wasn't my experience, and I graduated university in 1997. There was a period where there wasn't work to speak of, and the first job I landed after that was

That wasn't my experience, and I graduated university in 1997. There was a period where there wasn't work to speak of, and the first job I landed after that was pretty crap (though it was also the job where I picked up the skills and exposure I needed to end up working as a Postgres DBA). But I had some savings, collected unemployment, and had the help and support of friends (who also worked in tech, and weathered the .com bubble's popping more fortunately than I did) and family. Not all — if even many — of those things are true for most of the rest of this country. I mean, seriously: the fact that such a large chunk of the tech workforce couldn't find work in ~2001-3, or whenever, ended up going to law school it became A Thing people noticed doesn't seem to me a particularly valid counter-argument to the economic wreckage that is the Rust Belt. Yes, it's a wonderful prima facie demonstration of career mobility being a thing that actually exists in the world, but it, specifically, is also largely only available to people who already have the knowledge and skills (to say nothing of connections) such that they're almost necessarily going to be better positioned for these kinds of situations.