All concerned.
Any number of Gold/Silver bars on eppaulettes attached to the shoulders of freshly pressed white/blue/khaki etc. shirts are the uniform provided to pilots (for a "small tax deductible" cost of course) simply to instill a certain level of confidence in passengers choosing to travel with that operator.
Of course we would all prefer to be doing our jobs dressed in boardys and a shearer's singlet, but unfortunately a steriotype was created long before most of us entered the industry suggesting that any pilot with any idea of which is the pointy end of an aeroplane wears the above mentioned uniform, the more bling, the more compitent the pilot. Any emotionally entact pilot will agree that however many bars their employer will require them to wear is no real reflection of how professional they really are but more a reflection of the difficulty of the particular job that they are required to do, or of the length of their employ with the operator.
Those of you gloating about the fact that you have never had to don the sailors suit in order to perform your job are obviously involved in non-passenger carrying commercial operations eg. freight and agricultural ops and have therefore never been required to display any reflection of qualification to the great unwashed (public) or more likely than not the majority of you are happily immersed in non-commercial operatioins altogether rendering your armchair opinion null and void!!
Takes looong deep breath...
Enough said on the topic, lets get back to bitching about working for nothing! Who first??