Originally Posted by
Thedude
Give it time and there will be.
Same thing happened in the IT industry. Took them about 6-10 yrs to catch up but the did.
Guys I graduated with in the early 90s could almost write their own ticket in the IT industry.
The were being offered starting salaries in the $60k-$70k range and were still a semester from graduation.
Fast forward 20 yrs later and the starting salaries are lower (much lower if you factor inflation) and you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a guy with a IT degree.
Plenty of IT diploma mills sprung up. That might be OK if you're hiring a PC tech, but if you need a real coder or electrical engineer you have to fall back on those with reputable degrees.
Some coding can be offshored, but if you're a US citizen with reputable degree in a computer/systems/EE field you'll have no trouble getting a job in the defense industry.
Originally Posted by
Thedude
Just look at the US Merchant Marine fleet or lack thereof. Another victim of the "Flag of Convenience"
True, but there were no real concerns about security, and no right-to-wrk was required to visit a US port. Cabotage on the other hand is still illegal, raise serious security issues, and would probably require right-to-work for crew-members performing domestic service.
Not to mention there's simply no source of cheap foreign pilots. This could change but it will be a long time coming, and would probably require MCPL. Congress is probably not going to raise domestic airline pilots standards to ATP and then turn around and allow foreigners with equivalent of a PPL and some flight sim experience to fly US domestic service.