As a previous poster said, this isn't just pilots, it's a cultural thing. Pilot pay is a symptom of a bigger trend. I see the American standard of living decline as the rest of the world's standard rises towards our level. Global scale competition.

After WWII the world was in shambles, but the U.S. stood tallest financially, infrastructurally, etc. and we called the shots. Eventually the rest of the world caught up.

Oh how we extoll the virtues of competition and free market in one breath, then in another shout for anti-free market tactics with the next.

Oh, yeah, and we're job snobs. We could be making a decent living at rather bland jobs, and have decent QOL. But no, we want to have "that job." As Americans we define who we are by our jobs before almost all else, pilots included! That's our culture!