I am an early middle-aged "obsolete", "unemployable" American programmer who only has paid experience in pre .NET Visual C++. Should I bother applying?

I am an early middle-aged "obsolete", "unemployable" American programmer. In 2003, I had just come off of yet another in a long 6 years string of great paying gigs using my pre-.NET Visual C++ skill set. I was doing so well that then, in my late 30's, I saw a pathway to early retirement not soon thereafter - making 20-30% on a 6 figure nest egg in the stock market will give you that feeling.

But a few things happened in the meantime. First I had a home that was little too low in elevation a little too close to New Orleans that got wiped out in 2005. Then I found my Visual C++ skill set considered obsolete almost overnight. I learned the similar Visual C# .NET WinForms skill set, and started to work on the ASP.NET skill set. However, it seemed that the necessary complementary skill set to be an employed ASP.NET web developer was growing exponentially. By the time I realized that I had to learn JavaScript, CSS and who knows what cr@p API Micro$oft would push as its flavor of the month, I looked at my financial situation whose descent started in the loss of my home in 2005 and that hit rock bottom when the Great Recession came about, and decided to just throw in the towel, file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (keeping my retirement accounts intact) to discharge 6 figures of credit card and other unsecured debt, take full advantage of the social welfare system (i.e., SNAP "food stamps", ObamaCare, etc.) and just be an extraordinarily cynical "bum". I now advocate for socialist redistribution.

I have gotten off track in this response, so I will get back on. I would say that the front end is for the birds - the back end database stuff is where is the action is, and where the underlying skill set remains having value. Although there is the possibility that the current k3wl data scientist will be lose its luster, I really don't what a tech oriented person should do these days.