I would change the game like this:
1) Remove interest from mortgage (with a maximum of 1 house per family)
2) Remove the obligation to pay that part of the debt backed by the house and make insurance mandatory.
3) Turn rent contracts into lease buy contracts retroactively.
4) Cut salaries by 70%.
For the US this would mean:
The minimum wage drops from 7.25 to 2.175 per hour.
Benefits drop from 1300 to 390.
Pensions drop from 2600 to 780.
And in stead of droves of people endlessly searching for a job that doesn't exist there would be countless jobs to chose from.
Personally I don't mind doing the same repetitive factory work for 3 months. If I can go do something else at any time it wouldn't bother me at all. Hell, flipping burgers for a few months might even be considered fun.
If you have people put a widget in a box for 50 years you shouldn't be surprised their mind draws a blank. Their entire education would amount to nothing more than a lack of boxed widgets. Years of missed widget boxing potential.