Isnt the lesson here obvious? Reading all the sad stories on this forum about furloughs and such should be like reading an NTSB report. Let’s adjust our future actions.
Aspiring airline pilots shouldn’t go right for that “Bacehlor in Aviation Science” or whatever. Get a STEM degree while you earn your primary ratings at a part 61 flight school. Then work a few years in an industry utilizing your STEM degree making a respectable salary and building a network. Live within your means, don’t buy stupid ****, save for retirement, and use the leftover money to earn the rest of your ratings. After you earn your CFI, instruct part-time to build time. Or if you can afford to, and you should by now, quit STEM career and full-time instruct. THEN make the switch to an airline career. Now you have a solid back-up plan when things **** the bed like they always seem to in this industry. Sure, you might be in your mid-late twenties by then, but its an intelligent course and well worth it to have a solid fall back.