Originally Posted by Cubdriver
Boiler, you make lots of great points on these boards but this is not among them. Strong links can be shown between poverty, lack of sleep, poor nutrition and low academic achievement in school children.
I know that.
But I'd submit that very few people on APC have ever seen genuine "poverty", and REAL poverty should not be confused with regional pilots crying "broke" (again, I was one). I doubt any probationary regional airline pilots (short of maybe Lakes pilots) are worrying about where their next meal is going to come from.
Fatigue happens, but jumpseating overnight into the start of a trip is a decision. And as I've demonstrated, such a decision is optional - there are alternatives for somebody who can't afford a $75 hotel room 4+ times a month.
My issue is people who seem to intimate higher compensation = safer pilots. That is simply not true, even if you replace "safer" with "more rested". Higher compensation would certainly make it easier for people, but its no easy silver bullet.