I must, however, shout a 'whoa' at one point: "Programmers shall have the right to...be treated as professionals"
That is never a right. One has a right to be treated respectfully. Professionalism is something you must build into yourself, it's something to earn. When you conduct yourself professionally, you will be treated as a professional. It's not granted by title or circumstance.
Here's to a great career for you.
I very much don't want the barriers to entry that come with guilds. Maybe for some life and death critical domains like flight software and a lot of medical areas, but it would be insane for the sort of consumer web sites this forum is particularly focused on (well, beside leaking customer financial data...).
E.g. we really need to get serious about radiation treatment machines, seeing as how we're now into the second round of disasters, you would have thought the Therac-25 would have taught people their lessons....
