Umm! I agree that you can compare a degree with paying for flight training up to getting your fATPL, but a TR is extra once qualified.
Its also unfair to blame those who paid for a TR for all the current problems.
Firstly nobody actually wants to pay for a TR and therefore even those who have paid will not agree with doing so. But thats the way it is with a few certain airlines.
Secondly it was not the pilots who started paying for TRs. Lets all remember that after 9/11 the TRTO's were starving for business as the airlines were not taking on new pilots and putting them through TR courses. So what did they do, they opened themselves up to individual pilots in order to get some business.
I don't agree with paying for a TR, especially if you have no guaranteed job at the end of it, but for those that did and took the huge risk..good luck to you.
Now lets move on to discussing paying for hours on type....now how does the lawyer compare!!