“It isn’t illegals. Many that I have worked with from CA. have no geography or history knowledge. They are decent with math. It is pathetic.”
Unfortunately, this makes sense. There is no money in being “well-rounded” anymore for an average person.
My grandfather was semi-literate and never finished middle school, yet he earned a living good enough to put his daughter through college and his wife didn’t work except during WWII, and that was only for patriotic reasons. He knew enough self-taught math to become an expert machinist.
If one has a trade and is very good at it, I believe that this can still be done.
A machinist that can run the automated vectrax (CNC Milling) can command quite an audience. It’s high tech now. I really respect the old hands that didn’t have the automation. It’s not any easy trade.