[jedsmith]

Recalling the .com bubble, when the bottom falls out there is a lot of collateral damage, and not just to the players involved. Those of us on the sidelines and not involved in the idea-investment-flip cycle will suffer when the industry inevitably implodes upon itself. Facebook's valuation, specifically, has a lot of echoes to the past.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble#Aftermath briefly mentions the ripple effect on programming jobs.

As a result, there tends to be some animosity toward watching the cycle repeat itself.

[graceyang]

I was too young to experience the job market post the first dot-com bubble but I would argue that if you're in a job that is going to suffer from the collapse of this current bubble, you're most likely currently benefiting from the bubble already. If not, the collateral damage should be relatively low. Would a 37signals, patio11's BCC really be affected by a crash of this current investment bubble? Probably not.

[alex_c]

After a bubble bursts, the pendulum tends to swing the other way, towards extreme thrift, caution, and near-paranoia - it affects spending as well as investment. The over-correction can hurt everyone.

[jedsmith]

> I was too young to experience the job market post the first dot-com bubble but I would argue that if you're in a job that is going to suffer from the collapse of this current bubble, you're most likely currently benefiting from the bubble already.

A good point, but with respect to the .com bubble, Internet commerce's crash also affected the entire economy as well as ancillary companies in the IT sector. So I'm not sure that I necessarily agree; I work for a hosting company, and all of these bubble companies need hosting. You can see where A meets B, there.