Nevertheless, you still have populations in places like Northeast Philadelphia and upstate New York where the grandparents/parents didn't have such an attitude and instead said things like "forget college, you can always get a job at the plant/mill." Among these people, you already see the emergence of a white underclass. These are the girls you see selling themselves to buy smack under the Frankford Avenue El in northeast Philly, or the guys stealing copper fixtures in Buffalo for money.
If you have a specialized skill (even without a college degree) than you are OK. If you went through life thinking that an unskilled job would be provided for you, or, if that failed, the city would pay you $50,000 a year to operate an elevator, than you are out of luck.
The notion of the 1950s - namely that every man born in America would be guaranteed, at minimum, a union job with benefits and pension that he could never be fired from - is still alive and well in many segments of the population.
People who fail to compete, who are apparently unaware that there even is a competition, will lose.
Ding, ding, ding we have a winner. The days of blue collar unionized workers making as much as college grads is over. Of course unionized government workers are exempt.
You are right on the money. I told my kid I will send to any school you want to go to and can get into. He told me Dad I am not a scholar, he has all ways loved Big Scary Trucks, he fixes them and loves it, he is very good, magic hands.