Of course carpenters don't get this kind of nonsense, because you can buy cheap, mass-manufactured tables. If you go to a carpenter to get a table built, you must have a good reason and you know that a lot of time and money will be involved.

Make no mistake, this distinction is coming to much of what we currently consider "programming" too. Spreadsheets probably save the world from 80% of what would otherwise have to be done by a programmer, and someone will eventually find a UI paradigm for a rough database and rules system (maybe something like Bento+Improv?) that can replace much of what line-of-business programmers do now.

Now, you say: but programming is really about thinking and attention to detail, not just typing in code.

To which I say: yeah, and so is making tables.

But at some point, in the current Western economy, cheap wins over good.