We should teach the underclass to code.

What a wonderful cacophony of logical errors is involved in this! Let's dissect them, shall we? 1) Jumping on trends: "I know! Computer programming is hot! Maybe teaching everybody to do *that* is what will save us!" 2) Not understanding the reality behind the glitz: Yes, programming is a prestigious and highly-paid job - if you're lucky enough to be one of the few that's at the top of the game, working for the likes of Google, Apple, or Facebook. But that's not going to be the vast majority of programmers. Google gets ten thousand resumes *a day*. Guess what - your chances of getting hired there are just about on par with getting into the NBA. Most programming jobs are glorified office drudgery, for unspectacular pay. And that's *if* you can 1) not get your job outsourced to India or China, 2) not get your job taken by an Indian or Chinese H-1B, and 3) keep your job past 35 in a field known for brutal and undisguised ageism. 3) Blank-slate theory: Anyone who thinks they can round up a bunch of 85-IQ proles and, with a few books on Javascript and a couple classes and a little presto-changeo magic, is going to produce the next generation of Project Managers at Facebook, is fucking deuisional. 4) What Vox Day described as belief in a static universe: To the degree that programming - or anything else - is a valuable skill, it is so *because not everybody can do it*. Nobody pays people to breathe air or drink water, because that's a skill everyone has. The fewer people have the ability or willingness to do something useful, the more the pay for it goes up. So even if you *could* teach everyone to be a top-level programmer, you'd destroy the market value of the skill. They'd be a dime a dozen. So... no.