Experiment
 

Theory: Rational based people with few resources would not choose a flying or similar career when given the opportunity no matter how fun it was.

Test: Ask a blue collar worker a question.

If you were to win 200K in the lottery would you; buy a house, invest in the stock market or spend it and most of a decade in school, training and low wage experience building jobs in order to get to a position that pays 60K (or slightly more than they are currently earning)?

I don't want to spoil your results by telling you what I have found.

SkyHigh

Is this one of those future value of money/opportunity cost questions :p

I'd pay you off so I didn't have to listen to you anymore. Then I'd pay off my loans.

you asked Blue Collar workers?

Did anyone choose "Find nearest ATM, get 10,000 dollars in $1's and head to the strip club." ??

Strip club
 

Are we talking about blue collar workers or pilots? :D

SkyHigh

That was workers!

If it was pilots they would have only been able to take out about $50 in $1's because they would have to pay off the house, cars and boat with the lottery winnings.

Plus, the pilot would have gone to the BAR first!

fun?
 

Intangibles like respect, responsibility, public image, job challenge, and job satisfaction enter into the equation for pilot wages more than in other fields and pilot compensation more complicated than just a dollar total. Beyond the level of wages required to sustain a modern standard of living, it is almost impossible to quantify a need for additional pay. Like the CEO of a large corporation, additional pay is based on what is perceived by the company to stimulate respect from customers and interest in the services or products. This in turn is a reflection of the current value structure in society.

Your experiment is flawed due to sample bias because blue-collar workers are less aware of and less interested in the intangible forms of pay connected to professional work. To make a valid study you would need a representative cross-section from the overall population, preferably a cross section of college graduates with similar backgrounds to the people you wish to study. To simply find a group of blue collar workers who says pilots aren't paid well who would rather have simple objects instead of an airline career is misleading and is poor science. It's a valid topic but it requires better method.