Pickup, the "old and broke" crowd are a small percentage...but yes, you are correct, another own goal in seeing our conditions reduced even further. Between craven TB breakers, 55 COS18 sign ups and the fact that we can and will recruit from anywhere with any level of experience, there really is no other conclusion to draw that there will never be a proper "career" at CX. It is an airline of mercenaries and school kids. Even the management are mercenaries, dropping in a for a few years to make a few $$ off the backs of further cuts in our pay and benefits. Anyone under the age of 45 who is still here and not looking for an exit is mad, and they will surely regret not leaving when they had the chance. Ultimately, many of us are close to leaving (as is myself) so it is academic. For many of you, your entire career and it's possibilities rest on coming to terms with the fact that CX will chew you up and spit you out, probably broke and desperate by the time you get to the 55 point. Find an airline that provides decent pay, regulated work rules, somewhere your wife and kids can settle and have a normal life. You will ultimately be far happier. Doubt that?...then simply recognise the festering depression of your CX colleagues and their fatalistic outlook on just about everything. That is the consequence of 25 years of applied degradation to your worth and importance as a pilot in this organisation. They have the worst of the worst managing our airline so there should be no confusion as to why we are at the point we are. Desperate people on both sides of the aisle at CX, and what you get is the visible dysfunction and chaos that you see. It will not get better....ever.