The high school graduation rate in the US's big cities floats around 50-60%. The way I see it about half the kids growing up don't become white collar over-educated cubicle jockeys. I imagine these two groups strongly overlap. You can get a trade job with a endless arrests or even a conviction.
Wow. Most trade jobs require at least a high school diploma; many require some additional training (not necessarily an associates degree, but often a certificate of some sort, and enrollment in those courses requires a diploma).
