Sorry, usually when people claim that no one can make it without an education, they’re speaking of something like a high school diploma or more. I take you at your word that you were referring to no skills or OJT and ability to even do what they are told.
"If you were working in a car plant making $18.00 an hour and your company moved to Mexico I doubt you would feel very comforted to know that the median salary is rising in the US while you were working your brand new, permanent, $7.50 an hour job."
It would inspire me to no end to know that median real wages in the US was continuously rising if my careered dropped out from under me. There is nothing “permanent” about ones job.
Knowing that the US economy was just changing rather than failing, as all dynamic capitalist economies should, I’d be heartened to know that I could relocate and start a new career if I were young enough or that my kids could prosper if only they made better career decisions that I. It would comfort me to know claims like, "people are employed alright...and making less than half of what they were." are misleading at best.