The truth is that most of the kids at my airline who "paid" 120k for all of their schooling were funded by mommy and daddy. They also have brand new Scott flight cases and Bose headsets. People don't fly for the money. If that is your reason for becoming a pilot... I did it the 61 way, and avoided a lot of debt by working 2 jobs. It took longer, but now I can survive on what they pay me.

That said... Piloting is definitely not what it used to be but neither is being a Doctor or a Lawyer, and a Bachelor's degree is about as good as a high school diploma was 30 years ago. And of course there is always somebody willing to fly airplanes for the privilege of eating pretzels and drinking water...