Reading and writing wasn&#x27;t an essential life skill… up until it was (because our culture and society became a completely writing-based culture).<p>If you agree that we are going toward (or already are in) a computer-code-based culture and society, then it&#x27;s quite reasonable to say that programming is an essential life skill.<p>(That&#x27;s the idea behind code literacy).<p>[edit]: Reading and especially writing is hard. We spend years and years learning it, and only a few professionals master it from end to end. 
But the collective and individual benefits is huge. Programming seems quite analogous.