I also think some form of regulation is necassary. Made a poll about it in a different forum and 65% would be in favor of reregulation. The industry is too unstable being completely unregulated.

As to informing the public, I think we should all walk around in full uniform, dressed our best, hat and all with a big sign on our backs stating our position, and how little we make. "Airline First Officer, I make less then 20,000$ a year." In my case this year it will probably be less then 18, but who's counting..

Who had the power to cry for deregulation and get their way in the first place. Was it the CEO's or lobbies of some sort?

Not to go OT but

I believe it was lobbies of some sort. The CEO's I would imagine were quite happy with it as they as well as their airlines were making nice profits.

Airlines making nice profits... who woulda thought, a buisness where you actually make money.. what a novel concept.

here is a good article :

Why airline reregulation is no longer taboo
Why airline reregulation is no longer taboo - USATODAY.com

My $.02

One euro is worth about $1.60US. That being said, with oil at $102/barrel, European counrties are paying about $63US per barrel.

That is not to blame the demise of our profession solely to the price of oil, but when combined with the corporate greed of almost all airline management people, the diversity of our unions, and the laws in place preventing any type of productive action against this mistreatment, I can understand how this is happening.

this industry I think needs some type of regulation,lets say to fly from A to B, taking in considerations all the cost involved in that particular flight should cost X $$ right? well I would say everybody can flight that route but the ticket price is going to cost X$$ and airlines will be competing to each other on other type of benefits ...like better service,better planes ,and that route will be profitable for everyone involve in it.
the regulator would be controlling minimum prices and watching who is dropping them to bring down other airlines with the intention of monopolized the route.
another thing that nobody talks about is the with this type of capitalism airlines cut cost everywhere they can(to be able to survive) and sometimes putting people's life in risk like AA,SOUTHWEST did flying those MD,737 without complying with the FAA.

Not sure its been mentioned or not but the cost of living in alot of those countrys is much higher. Gas for expample has been $6-7 a gallon for years. I used ot teach some english students who told me it would be the equivilent of $20k to get a private in europe vs the $5500 at the school I taught.

Besides the grammar and spelling, this is a pretty ignorant post. No offense, but the bail-outs that happened were not because of lack of regulation. They were because of over-regulation. I'm sure I won't convince you on a chat board like this, but you really should do a little research instead of taking your cues from what you hear on tv. And, for the record, the bailouts are actually a form of government regulation. If the companies were allowed to fail, it would fix the industry. These companies were told by the government that they would catch them if they fell, so they took much higher risks than they should have. If they thought they might actually face failure with their risks, they would have been less risky in their endeavors. Just do me one favor. Read a book on economics. Anything by Sowell, Lott, or many other fine, educated men. You'll be surprised at what you don't know.

Seriously? You really want to advocate socialism? That's what your post here says. When the government sets the price for a good, it never works out in your favor. I'll just defer to my previous post. Read an economics book. I guess socialism must be the best way to go. It worked for all of the socialist countries in the world that became 3rd world countries under that type of economy. So sad... Educate yourselves.

Yes sir, best answer of this whole thread. People getting into politics, capitalism, socialism and all that irrrelevent stuff.... People fly for the regionals, and they do it for peanuts because is only TEMPORARY.... The mentallity is "I'm only going to be there 2-3 years, so who cares what they pay me. I'll be at a major soon, I'll do it for free if I had to" This way of thinking is killing our profession... Now with more and more people getting stuck at the regionals, and the majors not being what they used to be, this question comes up more and more...

The regional pilots have little leverage, there are thoudsands of CFIs eager to fly a turbine powered aircraft, and they'll pay to do it because they have the same dream regional guys have...

You are wrong. Oil is traded in US Dollars everywhere. Besides, exchange rates do not directly reflect on the economy of a specific country. Change in exchange rates is an indicator of economic trends.