In America, not everyone graduates high school, in which it is currently estimated that just 81% of Americans graduate high school. The problem with not graduating high school is that your job opportunities, job employment, and income are all correlated strongly with educational achievements, so that those without a high school diploma or equivalent are subject to the worst of these conditions, with an employment and earning future being considerably more circumspect than those with at least a high school diploma or equivalent. In fact, not even the military at this point, will accept you as a recruit without a high school diploma or a General Education Development (GED) certificate.
So a person without a high school diploma will not only have a future with far dimmer prospects, it also means, implicitly, that they probably are not competent or need assistance in such basic tasks as reading, writing, and arithmetic, all meaning that because of their lack of education, other institutions that they will deal with in the fabric of life, will more easily be able to exploit them. Fortunately, there is a sort of second chance opportunity for those that missed their chance or failed to get their high school diploma, for one reason or another, and that is the GED exam.
While it can be said, that the passing of a GED is basically considered to be the equivalent of a high school diploma, it is never, however, perceived as being better than a high school diploma, as for instance, for those trying to enlist in the military, a GED is classified as Tier 2, as compared to a high school diploma application which is classified as Tier 1. A GED also means for the person achieving it that they have had to take a five-part GED exam on their own time, with their own money, and further that they have passed the examination in all of its categories in order to receive the GED qualification.
This then brings up the basic point that since a public high school education is free of cost and is superior to a GED in the first place, and further that a high school diploma is the touchstone to basic employment opportunities, functionally literacy, and income, than why wouldn't everyone want to buckle down and get that high school diploma to begin with. Yet, each year, many students drop out of high school, or perhaps it should be stated, begin to transition out of schooling, way before high school, and subsequently receive no diploma and minimal education.
It would be one thing if the students dropping out of school did so because they had pressing family obligations such as farm work, or something similar, but in point of fact, most students dropping out suffer from one or many of the following issues: low socio-economic level, dysfunctional family problems, drug/alcohol/family abuse, peer pressure, immaturity and poor decision making, lack of language skills, psychological problems, and substandard schools/teachers.
In America, most everybody likes things that are free. Our public educational schools are one of those things that are not only free but will help to educate you and make you a better person as you learn to develop the skill-set that you need in order to excel or at least hold your own in the real world. By all means, if it isn't too late to get yourself a high school diploma, than do so, and if not, then study, apply and get yourself a GED, because without either, you will find the world to be desperately harsh and unforgiving.