It has to suck to be junior because we choose a seniority based employment system. Because of that, if anything "goes wrong" the junior guy gets the boot. In a previous airline life, I was furloughed. I didn't lash out my fellow pilots because my employer ran into hard times. I did not have any expectations of anything from the guys senior to me nor did I feel that they screwed me over because they had their jobs and I didn't have mine.
As to your argument about it being "far far worse today" than it ever did in the past.......well, I don't know about that. Maybe from yours and my perspective, that is true simply because these are the worst economic times that we have ever seen in our adult working years. So yeah, I guess that's true in that regard. However, how about the stagflation and economic times of the late 70's early 80's? Is it "far" worse today? That's a matter of opinion I guess.
As a counterpoint, however, I would say that a furloughee gets taken care of a lot better than furloughees in the previous generation. For example, our furloughees have their health care taken care of along with travel benefits and a right to sit on the sidelines and bypass for many years with no jeopardy of losing their recall rights. Sucks to be furloughed, sure. But I'd rather be a UAL furloughee now than a furloughee when the "senior guys" themselves were furloughed from United, for example.
Your last comment I'll just ignore.
