For the very young pilots out there, you might benefit from reading about how pilots groveled and 'crawled through the gutter' when US deregulation expanded and (under White House pressure) the FAA tolerated many outrages ( check their Western Region's "alleged" policies...), such as during the CO strike in 1983, so the super-scabs could fly jets for Mr. Frank Lorenzo.
That uniform with the shiny stripes has a quite intoxicating, hypnotic allure for hordes of pilots (and for the curvaceous, coat-climbing females they hope to meet....
), who are too impatient to wait for the drawn-out hiring process. They know that they can leave their house and "be somebody". One guy in 1982 told us that "I want an airline job so bad that I can taste it". Yep! He crossed the pilot picket line and also flew in the Colorado Springs AFRES..."it is all about me"
.... Another pilot was reportedly a convicted child-molestor before he scabbed at CO, based on what an EWR-based pilot on our jumpseat told me about two years ago.
This concept is nothing new, and goes back decades before that.
What puzzles me is the exorbitant cost now for civilian pilot training. Where in the US will the young pilots go and try to earn back the investment? How about after the major expense of the aviation programs at the Univ. of North Dakota in Grand Forks, or at Embry Riddle etc? After a few years, in the right seat of a regional jet one can feel a sense of accomplishment (without a good bit of PIC time somewhere, no ATP, so no upgrade...), but if your wife is home with a baby, you will qualify for US government food stamps-and you must often still pay at least a 20% chunk for any trip to the doctor's office. Are many ready to leave the country after several years and spend a career with various foreign airlines? Some are doing this now. Find out what is going on. Except for Southwest, UPS, FEDEX etc, the US major airlines each have several hundred pilots laid off. Find out how many thousands of pilots with years of flying turboprops and jets are competing just for an interview at those companies.