Originally Posted by hindsight2020

Americans are rather thick to the concept of opportunity cost. It's an entitlement complex really. The problem is that we've degraded the labor market to the point where all that is required to sit on the right seat of a passenger carrying airplane is a good credit score. I am hopeful the constriction of credit will accelerate and further reduce the available debt the majority of people rely on for the purposes of going zero to hero to the cockpit of a commercial outfit. This is happening with undergraduate college degrees as well, aviation grads are just one corollary of the problem. The loan hose has to be cut off.

People don't police themselves, so by denying the vehicles under which they indulge their 'dreams' you can indirectly positively effect the issue of livable wages and working conditions that the industry is currently on a flat spin to the bottom.

It is unfair? Sure. Just like a regulated industry was 'unfair' by maintaining barriers to entry and keeping wages competitive at the expense of less people getting a 'shot' at being airline pilots. Life's tough, not everybody needs to be an airline pilot to satisfy their passion for flying. I much rather see a push to make GA affordable and thence provide people the ability to have a recreational outlet with which to satisfy their affection for flying that doesn't involve disregarding economic common sense for what "feels right". Those two at colgan were so behind the jet it's not even funny (they had no business behind that yoke) and if you don't think the underlying labor dynamics of the regional game are not the underpinnings of the reason those two were in the cockpit to begin with you're probably thick to the concept of optimism bias or saddled with 6 figures of debt on a job with a negative cashflow after cost of living yourself...

The dream is dead, people need to start claiming some responsibility for their economic fates. The difference between one whose passion is flying and one whose passion is nursing is pure timing and luck. One caught the short end of the stick while the other can gloat, for a little bit anyways. It's no excuse for going "see the problem, acknowledge the problem to others, aaaand choose to do it anyways...it's my passion though..."