I've lived most of my life in "farm country". The labor laws here dictate that all employment needs to be offered to the "locals" for at least a month before the farms are allowed to fly in immigrant workers (typically from the Caribbean).
Farm work is hard work. It's steady pay ... but you are up early, you work rain or shine, and there are few days off. So as you can guess, no-one local ever applies for the job.
I can't imagine what would happen if the gov't ever closed the door to that labour pool.
I agree with your second point ... a little bit of passive income and investment (in currencies as well as knowledge) can go a long way in improving your life.
I recently had a Vet Emergency that forced me to shuffle some crypto and fiat in order to pay the bills. If I didn't have a little nest egg, I would have needed to euthanize an otherwise healthy dog.
This would be quite a disruption in the US I imagine. In Finland too to some degree. Last year, they were unable to collect all the strawberries and blueberries that were demanded, as normally Thai/Filipino seasonal workers do a lot of the work.
This is what is important to recognize - a little planning can make a world of difference in our experience. I know a lot of people who have and are struggling and wouldn't have any other options in this scenario - but it isn't that they couldn't have other options. Can't wait until needing it to start building it.