I took time to read through the whole blog and all the responses. First and foremost, great job on the blog. It is informative, but it is slanted towards the airline side of the house, but you've also misinformed the public a bit about corporate/business aviation.

I was an airline pilot, and I was one of those FO's making a pretty good living having "paid my dues" only to see my airline collapse. Instead of diving back into $20,000/year job to start "rebuilding", I chose to pursue business aviation. Now you see, unlike the airlines, should you lose a job flying something like a Global Express or Gulfstream 550 or Falcon 2000EASy, it is not an automatic sentence to go back to right seat of a King Air for $20,000/year. In fact, if you are flexible and willing to move, you can find a job flying the same equipment you've flown before making similar paycheck, much like that accountant you describe in your ACME Airlines scenario. A friend of mine recently lost his job as a corporate pilot. He got 6 months of salary as severance and he found another job flying the same equipment he was flying before a month later but making $1,000 more per month than at the old company. Now his base pay went from $103,000/year to $115,000/year and this is not counting his severance. Can you show me a US airline pilot that can do that? Corporate pilots tend to be compensated as professionals, airline pilots in the US unfortunately do not.

Seniority/experience.

Notice that if you are an experienced pilot, you are truly limiting yourself if you choose to stay in the United States, and primarily because the pilot job market in the US is very depressed and is likely to stay that way for years to come. If you are willing to move abroad, you don't have to start over at $20,000/year again in the US. You can make a rather good living overseas where the company pays for your housing (3-4 bedroom condo or a villa), education for your children at private American schools abroad, provide you with transportation allowance (think company making your car and insurance payment for you), and all of that is in addition to your basic salary which is far superior to anything you'd find in terms of compensation from the US airlines. And the most beautiful part? No seniority system that dictates you have to "pay your dues" all over again.

That brings me to the final topic - seniority system in the US and the obsession with "paying your dues" concept. This ranking system can be traced to the military which is where many earlier airline pilots came from. It is simply outdated, and it serves no one except the people on top of the seniority list. Our current seniority system is what's enabling outsourcing/searching for lowest cost unit, keeping the wages low, etc. Just think - if you were to ask your senior captain would he/she rather take a 30% paycut or stand his ground and risk having to start over at $20,000/year, that captain may thump his/her chest about how there's no way in hell he/she would ever agree to that kind of pay cut, but in the end, they will check the mark YES for concessions. Why? Seniority - why risk having to start over at $20,000/year. Now imagine if that experienced pilot could move to a different, healthier company and retain his salary. It would force airlines to compete in more ways than one. Accountants, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and virtually any professional can vote with their feet, and you can rest assured that their profession hasn't suffered nearly as much as ours over the years. On the other hand US airline pilots do not have that luxury - they've done this to themselves through their unions and their obsession with their seniority, and what's even more amazing is that there is not much will among the US airline pilot ranks to challenge this system. A wise man once said: "You reap what you sow."