Are programmers in the Bay Area the new working class?

The "tech worker" label has become increasingly pejorative and amorphous in The Bay Area. For many it has come to mean a mass of young transplants who do something with computers and have the wealth to displace and destroy existing communities. I would like to interrogate that definition. Who, really, are the people working in the tech industry? How many are programmers, and how do they fit into the hierarchy of tech companies? What is the economic/cultural difference between a programmer at a company like Google or Facebook, a systems administrator at Oracle, and a start-up founder with VC funding?

I would like to get a better picture of what life is like for programmers, especially as they try to put down roots in The Bay Area. What is it like for those who make salaries but don't get big payouts from stock and IPOs? How many programmers strike it rich? Are they making enough to buy houses and send kids to school? Given the high cost of living in The Bay Area, are they really wealthy or just middle class? How are they any different than workers in other industries if they have bosses and don't own their companies? Will their high salaries last? And if they don't, what will programmers do?

I am looking into all of these questions for a series of public radio stories. I would love to get the input of the Hacker News community.