Originally Posted by
DeadHead
By this measure everyone should hate their job in order to be compensated at a respectable level.
Many Athletes are compensated alot more than your average American. Since they enjoy their sport should those Athletes be compensated less?
Kind of a bleak view, in my opinion, believe it or not most people probably take pride in a career they enjoy.
The difference between a recreational pilot and a professional career pilot is that the professional career pilot is responsible for getting large groups of people from point A to point B safely. Recreational pilots take a ride down to the airport on a Sunday morning and if they don't like weather, they turn around go home, crack open a beer, and watch the game.
There has to be some kind of restriction to career entry in order to promote value. Some jobs are not fun at all others demand a lot of difficult training, education or apprenticeships in order to get in. It takes more of a sacrifice to become professionally licensed to cut hair than it does to become an airline pilot.
Flying is perceived as a fun, easy, respectable and non-work form of employment. People are clawing at the walls to get in at any price. In the past age limits, physical attributes and skill requirements restricted entry into the profession. Automation has made the job much easier to the point where a brand new commercial MEL pilot could serve as an airline FO.
Today the market is wide open. Anyone no matter how old, fat, blind, capable or incapible can get a job as an airline pilot. It takes 6 months to go from zero to hero. There are few restrictions to professional entry. Add to that that the market is already over bloated with pilots while the industry needs to constrict. There will be a glut of sidelined pilots for a decade or more.
A lot has changed to our profession since 1978. As a result pilots have no value anymore on the open market. They are slaves to the seniority system and do not have portable value. The only way to restore some worth is to find a way to restrict entry into the marketplace of new pilots. However this is America and we believe in open skies and the free market.
Skyhigh