Guv:
you should make your comparisons between professors, lawyers, Doctors, who have been with the same firm for 15-plus years, IN THE US ONLY. I think you'd find that the 15 year Capt is not way over the top, rather about the same.
Your mistake is to compare the US with the UK, where the average pay is ludicrously low for the 4th richest nation in the world, and the distribution of wealth is centuries out-of-date ( I'm a Brit BTW ). The middle -income bracket in the US is much wealthier than in the UK, and far more "professional" positions are held by working moms, with the result that in my neighbourhood ( not many pilots ), my pay is not remarked upon. The other professionals around me with the same company experience get as much or more, but we are "middle income". I think I represent a much larger % of the major airline pilots ( middle seniority ) than the the top 1000 or so that get your "too much" award.
I think that you speak from the position of one who is trying to start an airline, but in todays hiring market, with all the heavy-jet-timers with no "history" being snatched up, you are worried about where you are going to get your L-1011 experienced crews from. You can't compete with the package at the top 10 carriers, so you critique it. (NWA/UsAirways/ ALA/ UPS/ FedEx gets pretty much the same as me for similar equipment. You should do some basic research before you hammer just 3 airlines - continuously ).
Interesting post, though. The only thing is, we get told precisely who much we are of the cost ON EACH FLIGHT PLAN.