] In fact, history will look back and see gain and gain.
] That's because profits are not the same thing as social
] value. Just because a group of firms, an industry
] segment, flopped as a profitmaker does not mean it failed
] as a producer. Profit is primarily a signal about the
] size of a set of enterprises: If too small, then
] customers are desperate for your products, prices are
] high, and profits abundant; if too large, then customers
] are satiated, you can barely give the stuff away, and
] profits are absent. If profits are high, the industry
] segment should grow; if absent, it should shrink.

I agree with the article.. I just dispute the title.. The "rest of us" assumes you didn't work in technology. Its not just the VC that got screwed out of their money, many of us non-ruling class folks have been screwed out of our careers and lives. Its alot like starting over, only the exuberance of youth is just as dead as the irrational kind. So all-in-all, this may be grade-a peaches for America, but it still sucks for me. We are most likely still a good decade away from the point where "gain" and "bust" can be said in the same sentence without a very uncomfortable laugh from most of us who had a part in it all..

Why the bust was good for America