I wasn't necessarily 'making fun' of those ppl who had to do PFT.
It was a different economy, different scenario. Today's job market is almost sizzling compared to the way it was in the early 90s.
Lets recap - early 90s. Pan Am, Eastern, Midway + several other smaller affiliates - bankrupt. Thousands of multi-thousand hour PIC FAR pt. 121 pilots couldn't even find a job to BUY, let alone find a job, period. If you were a brand new CFI, it would takes years just to get a 135 freight job. What other choices did you really have. Yes, PFT sucked, but you did what you could to advance your career.
Today several majors have furloughed and a handful (e.g Midway, Canada 3000) are in the history books. Despite that, there is hiring at the regional levels. Several companies that you can make a career out of, including Comair, ASA, ACA, Allegheny, Piedmont, Skywest, are interviewing or sucking people out of their pre 9-11 hiring pool. I would gladly change places with any major airline pilot who is on furlough, except a USAirways guy...I have confidence this industry is going to bounce back. From various friends I have still at the CFI level, it sucks for them, yes, but there are still other options for them, e.g. 135 outfits, charter flying, etc....
Bottom lines: I am not a proponent of PFT and having to buy a job, I am just expressing the fact that the situation just 4-5 years ago was completely different. Those ERAU or FSI 500hr RJ wonders just didn't exist, and if you were hoping for an airline career, you did what you had to do. One more thing - look at how well a couple PFT evolved into a choice employer: Exec Jet and Continental Express. EJA is a place where everybody is gunning to be, while I know of countless people who went to COEX under the PFT regime, benefitted from the flow through, and are now sitting comfortable with a couple years seniority at CAL. I think they'd call that $10K the best $ they ever spent on themselves...
JT