Well if you're gonna go there then remember when pilots could upgrade at a regional in 1-3 years and not be stuck for 6-8+ as regional FOs that were hired in 2007-2010?

No kidding. Boo-hoo I have to get an ATP in order to get hired. :(

A lot of guys today wouldn't have the dedication to sling it out in the 90's -- spending years teaching people how to fly, flying checks in clapped out Apache's in any type of weather, only to hit a brick wall when the airlines you'd hoped to work for suddenly required you to write a check for $12,000 to get hired in the right seat of a Metro. All this for $17,000/year.

My heart bleeds.

^^^ This ^^^

And I thought I got real lucky. SkyWest just had raised it from $17 to $19 an hour. And I got paid during training as well as a paid for hotel room. Previously you only got something like $600 after training was finished. A lot of places didn't provide a hotel. I think first year pay stayed at $19 for another 12 years.

Upgrades were around two years. Four+ years were nearly unheard of.

Not saying that everything used to be peachy, but after a bunch of guys I've met complained about making $18/hour in the 90's, I did the inflation math and found out that was really $28/hour.

Most everyone will agree that flight training was substantially cheaper back in the day, and all those jobs flying checks around are practically non-existent now. I'd rather have done that than instructed.

I don't mind all this. If others are willing to overcome the barriers that slowly and surely have been added over the years, then welcome aboard. If not, good, you should only be here if you really want to be. I've met many people who chose majors and careers for the paycheck and didn't know the first thing about them going in. I don't want to fly with someone like that.

With these added barriers to entry, I've got a feeling that 20 years from now pilots won't be a dime a dozen, nor will they be treated that way. Fine with me.

Now please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this proof that there isn't a pay shortage like ALPA says there is? I mean most of everybody says that regionals were hiring with 1,000+ hours back then, all for an $19,000 a year job. Yet, there were tons of pilots flocking for those jobs back then. So....is there something I am missing?

and they stuck to the preferred.

lets see 19-20,000 a year 20 years ago versus the 19-23,000 per year 20 years later. accounting and economics was not required at you flight school college was it. Oh, yes, mainline first year was 23-25,000 per year then and then mainline pilots voted in B scale whch lasted for the next 15 years.

In your opinion, the added barriers of entry do not require an added increase in pay?

Back then, regional pilots dressed professionally. There were no "Chad's".