PSMs = ? Passenger service miles? Personal storage modules? I agree, pretty boring.

If you read the USBLS analysis they say the trend is toward larger passenger aircraft in the US carrying more people and using less pilots. Less pilots is possible via larger aircraft with higher passenger counts. It also squares with what we see all over the world. I do not really follow the international markets like you probably do, I read they are growing so I take your point on that, but be careful generalizing it to the US. What you are saying does not agree with the USBLS at all.

More to the point, pushing the message there is a pilot shortage without offering any statistical evidence to back it up is tantamount to leading pilots to slaughter. It is a huge disservice to encourage the expectation of jobs that do not/may not exist. People spend their life savings in training as pilots, and it goes to mention they also develop heartfelt expectations that can't be fulfilled when we do that. It is ethically irresponsible to trumpet false hopes. The airlines and airplane companies will trumpet "pilot shortage" to the end of time because it makes them money- they get cheaper pilots or sell more airplanes. But we as pilots need to do better than that. We need to use real numbers and back up our wishful thinking with facts. We need to be willing to accept those facts and adjust our expectations to fit.