This is an interesting side track. To what can you credit "our" high success rate? How many engine failures have you dealt with in your career? (Perhaps we should be cutting checks to P&W or GE) How many real no kidding Cat3 approaches have you flown. (Honeywell?) Had any frozen NDB approaches to minimums lately? (Are they even possible in our modern glass cockpits?) How about Oceanic navigation/communication? Taken any cel shots lately? The newbies today probably won't know what it is to go hours trying to call Shanwick on HF trying to get a position report out. (Position report?)

In reality, to us, the vast majority of our flying is no more challenging than a bus driver's. To us.

I am not in any way degrading what we do. Far from it. We work in a more dense airport environment than any of those that came before us, but to take credit for success rates and expect compensation based on that metric alone is a very slippery slope indeed.