as much as agree with your math, we all know the cost of the ppl being higher is the same reason the airlines are in trouble at the moment, so that would make it hard to justify paying a pilot 600k, now if all the airlines raised their prices accordingly, and then the majority of them died out, leaving only the ones who could stay alive charging 750 (3X an average I picked) for a ticket from one hub to another on a large aircraft (no regionals), then yes the pilots of those companies that survived, could stand to make 600k.

and before anyone comes at me for talking about the regionals, I work for one......

IMO, its pretty simple math/economics, over the years (as in the last 20 or so if not more), the price of tickets has not kept up with inflation, and a large part of that is because of regional airlines(edit: and LCC's), ok...., so that led to a lot more pilots being employed, but not nearly paid what they were in the height of the industry.

Man, what happened to the guy who was able to get out of the military after his pilot commitment and pretty much have a guaranteed mainline flying job?

LONG GONE............