I'd extend your comment to "Everyone should learn how to program". When you look at the number of repetitive tasks that take place in a typical office environment, it's amazing at how much time could be saved with a little programming.
Macros were designed to accomplish this, but they're still way to complicated to be used by most people. It would be great if there were some sort of easy to use third party system that could integrate with a number of products (Word, Excel, Websites) and provide an easy environment to build macros.
Construction? Landscaping? Farming? Jobs with lots of secretarial assistance? I think you've taken it a step too far and ignored several sectors of society. Many scientists could benefit from programming, and anyone else who has to deal with information regularly probably could as well. That doesn't equal everyone.
Arguably VB for Applications could come in handy for almost anyone. Though interestingly most farmers, carpenters, and other handy-workers are more capable of performing arithmetic than the rest of the population. Still the power of a well-tuned spreadsheet is quite amazing.
Farmers are also a bad example these days, agriculture is totally high-tech.
Macros were designed to accomplish this, but they're still way to complicated to be used by most people. It would be great if there were some sort of easy to use third party system that could integrate with a number of products (Word, Excel, Websites) and provide an easy environment to build macros.
Edit: I'm basically thinking of OS X's Automator