How many good jobs take less experience to get today than they did 60 years ago? Not to many that I can think of except ours; because of one thing... the airlines have figured out how to use the minimums of the commercial license to get under qualified pilots to work for poverty wages and have it be legal by FAA rules. I think that this is the first step in bringing back the profession to a level that we want it be at in the future.

The next step is to require a 4 year degree for all future ATPs. The high school diploma thing was written decades ago when most people didn't finish high school. This rule needs to be brought into this century where the traveling public expects that pilots to have degrees. Lets face it, if you are without a college degree 80K a year is a good salary and that is where the majors salaries have been heading. Part of the reason is the job shift from 120K a year FOs with 4 year degrees to 18-21 year olds willing to work for 24K a year for extended periods of time now that hiring has slowed down. After spending 100-150K on a flight education the young pilot feels stuck without any recourse other than to stick with flying. A good 4 year degree would help this as well. Yes most airline pilots have degrees, but we will always be forced to compete against the lowest denominator the way it is set up my managements right now.

We need to implement requirements that help us control the output of people into this profession in order to maintain the correct supply and demand curve to keep the reward worth the price of education for all our sakes. We could implement this stuff in a way that would keep current pilots in their jobs with a future date for implementation like you see in many FARs that state anyone holding a certificate issued after such and such a date, etc.

Just my opinion of course, but we need to take this profession back from the bean counters and this is a great opportunity to start that.