There's nowhere near the number of highly-paid manufacturing jobs anymore. You can make an argument that it's possible for someone to make a good living with a HS education if they play their cards right, but it certainly isn't as probable.

There just is nowhere near the amount of well-paid blue collar jobs, so there are not as many people getting those jobs. Simple as that. This is a big part of why income inequality has become bad. You seem to think that people have suddenly become much more lazy and shiftless than in the past, which is