As long as we don't kill the goose which laid a lot of us golden eggs.

If we destroy the ability of newbie programmers to come up outside the university-professional path, we've just irreparably damaged the whole field.

This is also why I don't like the idea of unionizing programmers: Even if we come up with a union which isn't based on the wage-and-hour, put-in-your-time model, unions are still based on seniority and coming up the "right" way as opposed to being able to strike out on your own in your own little company, without needing to pay dues, literal or metaphorical.