Springsteen paints the picture of a Vietnam veteran returning home and trying to go back to his old job, but the administrator who greets him can only shrug. Because inflation was so high, they had to cut a lot of people off from working. So a lot of people were jobless. So not even Vietnam veterans were exceptions. When he uses the metaphor "you died in Vietnam", he's saying that the veterans were pretty much forgotten. The war became unpopular and because of the economic crisis, no one was paying attention to the war, all of their attention was on the economy. Which also brings to attention that idea of alienation. They felt excluded and isolated because they missed everything that was happening in the economy and now most are out of luck with a job. Springsteen is trying to address this alienation and to show how the war was no beneficial for our economy and troops.

Springsteen emphasizes how the war veterans feel. They feel alienated and isolated. They fought in a war and they came back home and they might not have felt appreciated. Not only did they not feel appreciated, most of them did not have a job anymore. They had nothing to do and nowhere to be because they didn't have a job.