Gordomac, the best advice you could give them is to provide this website’s details and then stop advising them.
The current sponsorship and prospects for new pilots are better than they have been for many decades, but you sound like you still think it is impossible. Your friends down the pub do not stand a chance of success if they listen to you each evening. I mean no disrespect by that, but if they genuinely want to succeed, they need far more positivity than you appear willing to provide.