Supply and demand would take care of the problem if the government would merely set the standard and then leave it alone.

The lack of people willing to invest 200,000 to get a job that pays 18,000 is now very low. Airlines rely on the willingness of some to chase the carrot, the eventual 150k to 300k job. There are few carrot chasers out there now.

The airlines have not been able to get the standards changed much, so salaries have been rising. As the salaries rise the pool of people willing to invest to eventually get the job increases. Qualified pilots sitting at home or doing other jobs are given more incentive to go back to flying. Eventually an equilibrium is reached and there are enough pilots earning enough pay to keep the supply at the demand level.

As the last post points out, the airlines can save a lot of money if they can get those standards lowered. People who want to be pilots want the standards lowered so they can get their first airline job.

But the public wants to be safe and the public wants to feel safe. They don't want to be flown around by guys who are working for half as much per hour as the guys who cut their lawns. They don't want to be flown around by pilots who have no experience.

To achieve both we must endeavor to keep the public in the dark. Make them think that the standards are still there while they are effectively removed. If you take an hour seminar on using the color radar you get 50 hours of credit. A 2 hour workshop on crew coordination and you get 100 hours of credit. Build up enough of these little merit badges and the experience requirement is eliminated. The airlines can point to the fact that the pilots must meet the standards or other "equivalent training" and the public is kept in the dark. The politicians can point to the "tough" standards and are then free to get the campaign contributions that keep them going.

Every other profession that requires a license, when the standards are set those are the standards. The industry doesn't go to the government and argue to lower the standards because they won't be able to get the employees for minimum wage anymore.