Originally Posted by
Apokleros
The fact of the matter is that becoming a pilot is something that all too many boys and some girls want to do when they grow up (and it's not like we can blame them for that though), and many of them fail to do their research on how the lifestyle actually is, or simply don't care at that early stage of making their decision. Some who have already begun their training on the PPL may be so engrossed with the allure of flying that they fail to heed the warnings, and still will give it their all to fly for a living. This makes them easy "prey."
The flight schools and airlines know all these qualities--they know what makes pilots tick and they will exploit this by putting bait in the public domain that there will be a pilot shortage one day. Often this will be enough to make the pilots in training, who may harbor any doubts about how their future may unfold, work all that harder to earn their ratings and certificates and go for that $17-24k per year job. The winners are the flight schools and the airlines who then make more money and have a bigger stock of pilot fodder off which they can lower wages further.
That's just the damned reality of our corporate culture, wherein lies are often employed to raise the bottom line.
Very true. Another factor to consider is that these young aviator hopefuls want to believe that a career in flying will be glamerous and rewarding. Thus, you could spend hours explaining the reality, but it only takes one ad about a pilot shortage and thats it. I was once a young big eyed kid who ignored warnings about this job because I wanted so badly to believe that it wasn't true. So I can definitely understand why these false advertisments about a pilot shortage are so effective.