There is no real threat of starving to death as a consequence of failing to be able to provide for yourself as an adult. When you know you can count on the federal government to bail you out with food stamps, section 8 housing and welfare checks, there isn't any real downside to not graduating from high school.
To people on this board, we view that lifestyle as being below our minimum standard of living -- we wouldn't be happy with living life at that income level. To a lot of people, it is a perfectly good lifestyle and the effort to graduate from high school, work for minimum wage for a few years, work your way up the ladder, etc is total nonsense because the federal floor we've created is good enough for them.
