hindsight2020

Oh Absolutely. And this ties back to the concept of optimism bias. It is everybody's expectation that they will be statistical outliers. That's why optimism bias is so scary. It's not so much that these folks don't outright know that you make food stamp wages for the responsibility of carrying people's lives in your hands, it's that they do it in spite of that knowledge because they BELIEVE that they will not fall under the statistical median. They recognize there's negative returns on a high debt load for a 20K job when the opportunity cost is another job for the same pay and none of the required training costs. The problem is of course, they ALL think they will NOT be statistics. They won't be stuck with a 20K job and high debt, hell no, they're different. They're special, they're unique, they're strong. Meh, they're optimism biased..... As such, none of them plan for that possibility, as to do so is to philosophically quit before you start (cue: the "attitude" crowd). Which is why this industry is hosed.

As to how that ties to expectations, these so called "benchmarks" are also socially flawed. That is to say, pilots, just like college freshmen, develop and set their expectations on the outcome of the statistical outlier. If they had set their expectations on the median (the economically common sensical thing to do) they would, at the most, exceed their expectations (great!) and at the least, met them as a majority (good for the majority). Or even better, quantified that what the median outcome provides is not good enough for them and pursued something else altogether! The amount of discontents would actually be the minority. But instead we all go for broke and when our common sense tells us we can't even afford to shoot for broke, we sign a promissory note and keep on clickin' our heels. No wonder the industry is hosed.

As to the "do it for love not money" crowd, pure chaff. That horse has been beaten to death. Simple hierarchy of needs establishes you're inherently incapable of being happy when you're hungry. You can't be happy and sick, you can't be happy and beaten by the weather and elements with no shelter. Nobody is suggesting with a straight face to fulfill your self-actualization needs without safety and basic tenements fulfilled first. Which is why being a starving artist is no different than being an unhappy dentist racking up the overtime so he can pursue his passion on the weekends, from a happiness perspective. The difference is that you don't see the dentist telling the kids and wife "screw you guys, I'm gonna go dance! for a living even if it puts y'all out"...that is of course unless he's a career changer regional pilot....

Pilots are not the only starving artists out there. Musicians, sports players, artists, certain teachers and instructors, volunteer firefighters, they're all faced with the realities of not being able to substantiate a median living as a median worker in these fields. They gotta suck up the red pill too, what then makes pilots so special that they need to put the lives of other people at risk for the lopsided fulfillment of their broke-a## dreams?

The madness has to end, the flying public (if they could get a clue) should force an outcry to close up shop on the regional feed. Close the student loan racket and make the industry the utility it has bottomed itself out to be. Senior pilots can finish out their stint and go away (I don't expect much empathy from the top seniority crowd, they ARE the statistical outlier) and let the industry re-regulate itself. Many people would be locked out, but those that do enter would be able to substantiate a median livelihood, who knows maybe the new equilibrium point would be a little higher for the new guy. But the present system is broken for good.