You can go through life with just vocational training an certification with a nice paying job. Just keep in mind you will be the first to get axed and vs the low experienced degree'd person.
I work with people making over 50K a year, 40 hours a week, available overtime, 4-5 weeks paid vacation, annual profit sharing, and fairly regular raises, and best of all job security, all with only requiring a high school degree. To me that sounds a lot better than making 60-70k while working 50+ hours a week and not knowing when your job is going to be outsourced and finding yourself unemployed.
If you want job security, manual labor is exactly what you want. Plumbing, mechanic, welding, etc; all of these are jobs that require people on site, and require levels of competence and skill that preclude both offshoring and outsourcing. Managers with an MBA are a dime a dozen. A skilled mechanic with an A&P is a lot harder to replace.