You mean no one in America knows how to drive a manual, or "stick-shift" as you call it. Most people in the UK (and in most other European countries I'd imagine) learn to drive on a manual, very few people take the automatic-only driving test, which only allows you to drive an automatic if you pass, with the normal (manual) test you can drove both. This limits you as to what cars you can buy as many smaller (and cheaper) cars aren't available with automatic gearboxes.