The message to young people was not to bother with furthering their education. The message to the parents of those young people was, since the end is so close, don't worry about saving for your retirement.
The guys who wrote that stuff were taken care of in their old age by our parents donations and they all died. Unfortunately many of their JW followers banked on not ever growing old or ever needing anything for retirement. At least we were young enough to recover from that part of it even if our earning potential was diminished by listening to this man made directive about education.