Following up on block30's argument.....Exactly Right, which is why it's disingenuous for a senior guy to pawn off the realities of the brave new world to the young guys as if it was (as always, the tired mantra) a function of hard work, perserverance (the 'you can't hack it' argument) and mere time.

Late Gen X'rs, Gen Y's and beyond will never see the industry of 20 years ago, it'll never get better, so essentially the only people who would be able to be content with the current gig will have to be those that 1) do not need the income and 2) those who can accept the lifestyle and inelastic work force as it is offered. In that respect Skyhigh is doing a great job at providing a sobering look at the realities for the median.

My biggest gripe in college in my formal field of study was that everybody signed up after the big ol speech from whoever at Lockheed Martin or Boeing, talking about the great 20 year career, when during the whole 45 minutes everybody had selective hearing about the fact he was project manager yet actually didn't even go up the ranks of industry, was actually a late bloomer and his career was more fucntion of chance than effort. Yet instead of realizing the complexities of how this gentleman came to be at the place he was, people chose to presuppose in their minds that what that gentleman did was what they all stood a chance at doing when they got done with the college racket. And pilots are just the same way. Everybody looks with depressing short-sightedness at what they wish their day to day would entail, when in reality they are just aspiring to an ideal state that statistically few can hold at any one time. Yet instead of accepting that cost they turn back at people like skyhigh who recognized the full cost and call him a whiner. I don't expect people in de's position to recognize skyhigh's circumstances as legitimate, it falls outside of his working construct, therefore only a quitter could have bestowed upon himself sky's fate, but for people on here who are NOT banking like DE's , YOU are the exemplification of the problem, because you choose to look at the conman selling you sh$t in a bag and you eat it anyways because you believe that success is a matter of proxy rather than chance, and you're too chicken to about face the industry that's treated your household so poorly, and do something to better your financial situation instead of dragging your feet and chasing every which crap job that keeps you current. Functional addiction I call it.