Most of the other airlines have gone through what we are going through...merger, right-sizing, tanked economy, PBS, etc.

Yes, the movement won't likely shift into high gear for a little while longer, but we've got a lot of attrition coming that stretches well into the next decade.

I remember reading DL and UA guys on here talking about how horrible things will be with right-sizing, PBS etc and yet now they are done with that they are moving along nicely.

Economic downturns are cyclical and should be expected. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when and how severe. In any case, I think if you manage your budget on a narrow-body FO pay level, you'll do fine regardless of how events turn out...well, most of the time any way.

There's always the very bad downturns, such as 9/11 and the early 2000s (also a mild recession made things worse)...but I would think that's an extreme and most economic downturns won't be that bad as the industry saw from 2001-2008.