This article is written as some kind of drunken rant, desperately holding on to overly formed opinions and 2 validating points of data.
That's not to say that the author doesn't have a point, it's almost certainly true, but Salon should have really had an editor look over this. For crying out loud, he shifts between 14k and 140k employees for Kodak in the article.
How will readers who do not already agree w/ him become convinced?
While this will like devolve into a trite discussion about why programming computers is just the same as building a bridge, it's offensive that the software industry takes for granted just how much work goes into earning something like this ring versus coding JavaScript.
I worked my way through college doing web development while studying 80 hours per week on top of that for years to get my engineering degrees. Having systematic devaluation of that is deflating, if not wrong.
Working from home makes it so that work time is worth nothing and work results are worth everything. With that, it makes sense that working towards driving results rather than chair-hours is more productive.