Without being able to read the article, I'd say there's good reason for programmer value. It is one of the few professions that really grants a kind of leverage

Without being able to read the article, I'd say there's good reason for programmer value. It is one of the few professions that really grants a kind of leverage for effort to a business - because programmers don't just program something once, they program and it works over and over again. Yes, that requires some degree of maintenance, but the fact remains that you simply couldn't accomplish many things which businesses take for granted without programming. In fact, even with a flooded market of programmers, the production of new tools actually affords programmers even more tools to work with and even more leverage for the business by employing them. So there remains a strong case for programming. Mind you, the silicon valley area as a specific thing may well be a kind of bubble given how much more you can be paid there as a programmer compared to just about anywhere else in the world.