Good God almighty!!!!
Why should pilots lives like Doc's and Lawyers? There is no comparison, Doctors are knowledge workers, and pilots are skilled workers. Doctors go to school for up to 20 years, work for slave wages until established in practice. Anyone with a certain level of skill and desire can be a pilot, no high school diploma, no college BS degree required, no MD in Medicine like a doctor, just go to a trade school and develop a skill. Pilots unlike Doctors, CPA's and Engineers have no unique abilities that allow them to change jobs and be paid close to their last job. The job can be done by anyone with a Comm/MEL/Inst. High earnings are based upon seniority within a company's pay structure. When you can not live on a pilot’s pay, you go somewhere else where you can get better pay. I have had four non-flying jobs while waiting for a chance to get back into aviation. I have never seen a $100K in my life and I would be happy to work for that. I am still living my dream. If you want to be extremely rich, get out of flying and get into the U of M or Harvard MBA programs, then you can live with the Doc's and Lawyers. Or you can run a Muffler Shop like my brother in law, high school grad, who lives in an executive/professional neighborhood.
PCL_128....i also share your disbelieft! Let's all try and remember that we all come from different backgrounds and have different values and beliefs. There is alot of talk about the lowering of the bar, but what we see here is a lowering of the self esteem, and self worth.
The guy is right in one respect though, there is no comparison between doctors or lawyers.......when a doctor screws up.....he kills one at a time...
BUT WHEN A PILOT SCREWS UP, HE KILLS HUNDREDS AT A TIME!!!!
Doctors have a trade just like anyone else...that is they specialize in one thing and tell me something yippilot, if a top surgeon loses his hand in an accident, how useless does he become? yes i know he can go and now teach, but so can the pilot. I've thought about plan 'B" for a long time as part of my what if i lose a hand scenario and have come to the conclusion that there is alot of non flying jobs out there to do as well! My brain and the KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE THAT IS CONTAINED WITHIN puts makes my time very valuable.
Yes doctors go to school for 20 years and wow! how about that....Someone other than pilots can make ******************** wages while they climb the ladder....but you are wrong in one respect, not just anyone can be a pilot. This depends on what you define as "pilot".....someone who buzzes around the pattern or goes for that 100 burger is just a hobby or recreational pilot, but someone who has reached the level of jet transports requires a whole different level of skills, knowledge, determination, discipline and MATURITY.
If you perhaps mean that pilots will never make millions in a year, like a CEO or a stockbroker in Wall Street, then I will have to agree with you, HOWEVER, we have privelages that no money could buy, the view outside our office beats that of the president or any CEO on 5th ave. we carry hundreds of lives in our hands daily, some carry thousands.
my attempts at intellectual persuasions perhaps may not drill the point home, so let me ask you this......for the pilots on here that fly people, perhaps a casual stroll through the cabin on occasion will allow you to see the little girl or boy who couldnt be happier to be there and is going to see grandma or mickey in orlando, how important in their life are you?
for the cargo guy, how important are you that you deliver that heart to the waiting ambulance? How important are you to world commerce that you get your shipment to point B?
point is, pick your head up, stop depreciating yourself, perhaps read some self help book and repeat after me:
"I am just as good a person as a doctor or lawyer, and if I never crash an airplane, then i keep work away from both of them and then they wont be able to afford their homes, will move out and open up a vacancy for me and then they can live in my double wide"
