Self-righteous anyone? You fly a plane. Circumstances have dictated what payscales 121 pilots are making currently for being responsible for flying people from point A to point B. But you didn't discover the cure for cancer brother, you fly planes. You're not the only one in this country sacrificing, nor the only one working, or at the very least with the perception of having worked, twice as hard to get to the same place.
90K with a semblance of QOL is nothing to scoff at. Now, is it true that today's economy forces the middle class to be two-income households by default and therefore a single person earning 90K isn't what it used to be? Absolutely. But everybody has a bloated perception of the value of one's work when compared to other careers.
I used to see this coming out of college with an engineering degree. People b%tching and whining about how they should start at X salary and they deserve more, ad naseaum. Guess what, nobody cares you fly a plane, like nobody cared I had additional education when I decided to pursue flying professionally. Just like nobody cares you feel your chosen profession should be compensated more compared to "90% of the country".
The key to keeping perspective is to make comparisons in terms of opportunity cost, rather than let your entitlement complex get out of control. You wanna make 200K+ in a "timely" fashion and feel flying a plane, current QOL and other externalities considered, is not getting you there? Hedge your bets and make the appropriate career changes and see what happens. But pounding your chest and screaming "I deserve more, I am worth more than 90% of earners because I have sacrificed soooo much" does nothing to reinforce your argument that pilots should be compensated more (which for the level of responsibility at the regional level I believe they should).
Just some perspective is all.
