Turbine Pilot said:They will get all the money and we will do all the work since so many pilots LOVE to fly so much that they don't care about a nice wage anymore.
BARF!
I was in Cheyenne, WY a couple of months ago (doing military crap) and was staying at the Plains hotel. That's the same hotel that Great Lakes aircrews stay at; mostly in training, but also for layovers.
I was in the Snake River saloon across the street and got to talking to some of the Great Lakes crews and I asked one of their senior pilots (also an instructor) how much he made a year. $55K. Now, knowing that pilots have a propensity to overstate everything (I'm 10 inches erect. Honestly.), I figure that the SOB is probably making $45-50K/yr. When I told him that the profession was fast dying and to go do something that paid decent wages, the SOB looked at me and said, 'I don't do it for the money; I do it for the love of flying.' I just walked away shaking my cranium case. That's the future, ladies and gents. The next generation of pilots that is moving up the ranks will be doing it for the love of flying; they don't mind living in their parents' basement.
We're blue collar all the way; in another 10 years, this won't even be debated.