I was fortunate enough to go through my career with airlines that did not make you pay for your endorsements. From GA to regionals to airlines... However I did pick fruit as a young lad, worked stacking shelves, delivering fliers, worked in bars and you name it... to help pay for my licence and I sure as hell know that my fruit picking money would never have gone to pay for the privelidge of working for a company.
There is going to be a revolution history here in aviation - we just need to work together a little bit so we can 'milk' the benefits as much as possible, and make sure we get every dollar and cent we're worth.