There are plenty of 'non-programmers' that I have met that know how to write SQL and write small embedded programs for Microsoft Excel. Why did they know this?

There are plenty of 'non-programmers' that I have met that know how to write SQL and write small embedded programs for Microsoft Excel. Why did they know this? Because it what was accepted as a 'plus' (by whomever they worked for) to know how to do these things. (I imagine employees being empowered to do this cut down on the number of IT guys that the company would be forced to hire to do menial tasks others didn't want to/couldn't do.) If these same people had the same expectations placed on them to know how to use emacs, vim, git, a terminal emulator, etc. to write scripts (or whatever) for what there job entailed, I firmly believe that they would have been able to do that just as well. In their minds they would still not classify themselves as programmers (even though they would be programming). So is programming literacy actually down? Or is the perception of what programming literacy is, off? Programming literacy would have to be geared towards personal empowerment rather than vocational training in a 'public education' scenario. Which is interesting because most programmers in the industry are simply people who came to enjoy the empowerment of programming (many times years before they ever had their first programming job). While other people (who don't enjoy that empowerment/activity as much) tend to not work in the industry (or even if they wanted too, they tend to not get hired). This is what makes the world of vocational programming more a world of culture rather than strictly a world of able professionals (not to say that the people working in the industry aren't able). Come on, you don't honestly think that the Hollywood depiction of "hackers" is based on nothing do you? The industrial gearing towards a 'programming culture' is also what keeps certain people away. Although I think a strictly 'neckbeard' culture (or however you want to define it) is slowly fading away over time. All that being said, not everyone reads. And many people (to this day) have no desire to use that empowerment even if they are able (as in use the literacy they have to take the time to go out and learn/read about new/important things).