Not even going to get into the debate. All you need to do is correlate the number of retirements, the planned number of hires, the fact that the military is recalling thousands, and the fact that there has been a dearth of people learning to fly for 15-20 years. Even without the fact that I have it on good authority that it is being discussed by the airlines and the government, the facts mentioned above clearly say something drastic has to happen. I realise that you 'americans' don't like the idea of 'ferreners' coming over, but it will happen. They did it in the 1960's, so it's not a precedent being set.