So I suppose that all of those eurpean carriers aircrafts are just falling out of the sky then, since a large portion of there training is done through ab initio training programs. And I really do guess, that flying around the pea patch doing stalls and slowflight, makes you a lot more suited to flying 121, than someone who may have less time, but has trained exclusively for that purpose. just out of curiosity as an example, how many people in your new hire class could explain exemption 3585 before classes even started? Knew what a PACK was, and had an extensive understanding of how it worked? Had a thurough understanding of high altitude aerodynamics? Core Lock? Understood, the whitlow interpritation? Every one of the AB kids in my class could. I am not saying that our pay is great, or we don't deserve more. If that happened, it would drive the minimums back up. Which would be a good thing. But I am saying, that before you insult a low time guy, get a handle on his experience level. The old idiom of, if i fly for 3000+ hours without killing myself or bending an airplane, it must mean i am a good pilot, is dead. Better training = better suited for the carreer. All low time pilots are not equal. 250 hours @ Joe's FBO and crabshack, will not be the same as 250 hours @ a specialty program like lufthansa's. Add in there sim training, a couple of type ratings, etc. They have a pretty diverse resume. As someone said earlier, the military has pilots that are qualified pic with that kind of experience. You don't see there aircraft dropping like flies, infact, many consider there training to be the best in the world.