There is been lots of talk, but in my opinion we should make the difference between paying for a TR, which unless you are promised a job is useless, and PAYING TO WORK.
There are several reasons why not to do that, among others:
1-if you pay to work as FO, you are making a first officer unemployed, cause this company wont employ anymore FO, as they can get them for free, better said, paying
2- in the event you get enough hours to be considered for a position, you wont get one, cause they will prefer the following in the queue, with fresh cash
3-The company will be able to lower the prices , thus forcing the other companies to follow their method or go out of bussines, so on the long term you wont have a job, and if you have one the wages will be so low that you'll have to spend your days off working at MCdonalds to make it to the end of the month.
There has been somebody saying that lawyers have to pay for their training and to become partner, well that is true, but this people WILL BE OWNERS OF THE COMPANY THEY WILL WORK IN, while you FO paying to work wont own s**t .
The theory of that there is no way of getting a job in GA is bull****, know lot's of people getting jobs without contacts, one of them being me, it may take a little effort and perhaps moving from an area to another , or even to another country, but it can be done, you don't neeed to be superman for it, just be willing to do it.
The other big LIE is saying that a 1000 hours on SEP, either instructing or doing aerial work, are useless when it comes to fly big iron, this afirmation is erroneous.
Be honest and say i don't wanna work hard for it, i wanna have it easy because i can afford to pay, and i don't care if i am causing prejudice to myself and my colleagues as long as i get what i want.
It's fine if you want that , but do not try to make it up and convince yourself and others that it is allright.
Call things by their name