Quebecer,
I agree...well said!! The profession is in a pickle down here too. As for the previous comment about the value of MD80 time, you are correct that flight time is flight time and therefore has value. However, in a world where job postings require "...typed, current and XXXX hours in type...", MD80 time isn't nearly as "marketable" as 767/737/A320, etc. Look where the MD80 jobs are...Indonesia, Africa, maybe Taiwan...places you and the family might not want, or be able to go. And, these jobs aren't career positions from the look of them( a career position being everyone's first choice).
I've got 6,000 hours PIC in the MD80 and have been looking for long term employment for over a year....unsuccessfully. This has a bit to do with my ambivalence about overseas employment perhaps but after tracking job postings carefully, the world is, in fact, NOT crying out for MD80 pilots. The airplane is Third World...