I'm going to UAA and my parents arn't what you call wealthy, on paper my dad is soup kitchen material. He owns his own house and is around 6,000$ away from owning some property thats probably worth half a million right now, but I'm still able to go to college and get a bachelors degree in Professional Piloting, right now I'm 19 and have about 18,000 for college loans, none of that is paying for my flight time, so i'm having to come up with about 9,000$ on my own, for my PPL.

Going to college full time it's hard for me to go out and find a job. The thing is I can't grow up and see my self not flying airlines or cargo. I know theres a long hard road but its the only road i want to take so I'm going to pay for all my certs up to ATP which i know is going to be very spendy.

I am in agreement with the economy as being the main cause.