Airlines don't want career First Officers and no-one wants to be one, but they exist and all those involved started at the bottom. As no-one seems to have specified that this thread is that Captains should be paid more as opposed to all pilots I didn't assume that in my discussion. (wheras it looks like you have- hence my point about discussing face-to-face being much easier. Actually re-reading the posts you did mention Captaincy earlier while I thoughtI was pretty obviously talking about the RHS; it seems we were talking slightly at cross purposes).
With neither of us having any hard evidence about the trainability of candidates I am glad we can now simply agree to disagree.
And with reference to your final point I would love to be the captain of the 60s and 70s on footballers wages and living like a rock star (ahem...
). But the sad fact of the matter is that market forces are at work. It does not matter how responsible we are (or think we are - more subjective arguements) no-one is going to give us a chunk of their profits because they think we deserve it no matter how much you want them to!
Unfortunately
because, with all the factors listed before, the fATPL is achievable by most
(the opinion of this author does not constitue the collective opinion of this or any other thread
) there are a lot of unemployed pilots. This has driven down Ts & Cs (especially with regards to type ratings - my flight school was telling me about the good old days where an airline recruiter came to the school and offered to pay for you IR if you had a CPL!). It is also those who look skywards and dream but cannot be dispassionate about their employment who have affected the market too (I would live in a shoebox and fly for free if someone would let me - which payroll dept would turn that offer down?). I suppose it boils down to whether you approach this discussion from a standpoint that has nothing to do with achievability (I think our job is infinitely more responsible than that of a professional footballer and hence we should be paid more; which I agree with I just don't think upping our salaries to match theirs will work!) or realism (we will only ever be paid the lowest salary required to fill the seats with suitably qualifed personnel - and we are the ones who determine that price, not the beancounters, they simply start the offers low and up it till it works!)