Nosegear,
Have a look at today's posts in the Monarch T+C's thread on Terms and Endearments. You'll see all the starting pay for for brand new guys across a spread of UK companies.
$90K usd basic is a tempting and realistic prospect for folks to go deeper into hock. Whether you and I like it or not it's market not lemming driven. The thought of taking that risk horrifies me but I'm not twenty, invulnerable and thinking no further than next week any more
Rob