I think the fear of using the word 'bubble' is reaching a bubble.
Salaries would go down (demand for programming jobs would outstrip supply) and there might even be a real estate crash in geographic areas heavily dominated by startups (e.g., Silicon Valley/San Francisco).
According to Wikipedia, it's no rounding error:
"11% of private sector jobs come from venture-backed companies and venture-backed revenue accounts for 21% of US GDP."