I think it depends on the situation.

It's a tough problem, because a lot of times you have people who can't remember ever not knowing how to cook talking to people who didn't try to start cooking until their twenties, and often there is an empathy gap there. But it's also a self-reinforcing one. The less you know, often the more you discourage yourself and everyone around you, and if no one cooks in your house, odds are no one who grows up in your house will cook.

(There's a reply to this comment about multiple pots and pans and an hour or more of scrubbing and about peeling potatoes which gets at what I mean by intimidation. You practically never need to peel potatoes--there's a lot of fiber in the skin anyway--and nearly all my weeknight meals are made in one pan that I then soak overnight. And it's hard to sort out how much of this is just not knowing and how much is about building it up into something not worth trying.)

For people who make a livable amount of money who just think cooking is really hard and super expensive compared to mid-tier takeout, I think a short subscription to a meal plan service can be helpful. Yeah, it's pricey, but it's not as pricey as ordering non dollar-menu takeout every night, and it makes you learn basic knife skills and understand how to stagger different steps. Mark Bitmann is even working on starting a plant-based one, which should be helpful in terms of healthy and lower-cost cooking. One-on-one cooking lessons are great, and I've taught a few people basic skills and walked them through recipes that way, but it's pricey as a general solution.

For people who have a big money crunch, a lot of communities have low cost and free cooking and nutrition classes. I know people who have taken them and gotten much more confident in the kitchen, and I think it's a really great program. The last place I lived had them for kids, too, which was fantastic. A lot of communities also double food stamps at farmer's markets and have other programs to try and make fresh food accessible. Even little steps are a good thing--an apple doesn't take more time to buy or prepare than a bag of chips, and cutting up some carrot sticks is only a little more work.

In terms of cooking shows, some are more intimidating than others. I do think the public library is a fantastic resource; there are cook books with step-by-step pictures and DVDs of cooking shows for fast meals. Mark Bittman has books called How to Cook Everything and How to Cook Everything Fast which I think are pretty accessible. Some libraries even let you check out ebooks online without having to slog across town to get there.

There are also free e-cookbooks aimed specifically at people cooking on a small or foodstamp budget. There are youtube shows for basic skills and for low-cost cooking. Part of it I think is just getting the information out there.

The reason I say that a lot of this is about skill level, habit, and intimidation factor is that I grew up in a not great, quite poor area for a big chunk of my childhood. And there were families where it was fast food all the time, and families where there was always rice and beans and vegetables and maybe a little meat some days. It didn't correlate with whether both parents were working or whether their jobs were physically demanding. In some households it was just the expectation, and there was a generational knowledge base. In other households no one knew how to cook or they didn't think it was important or fast food was their one luxury--and if no cooking was happening, of course the kids would grow up not knowing how to cook, also.