We're talking about a profession here guys. For professionals. The ATPL is the highest education one can get as a pilot, and should not be a weekend course at the equivalent cost of a bag of doughnuts. It should not be a human right to get a professional license, even though a lot of us seem to think it is ok that the market is flooding over with fresh pilots from the FAA system with 200 hours, willing to pay whatever asked for a typerating, then landing a job you should have gotten as an experienced pilot. As long as there are too many pilots, salaries will not tend to rise either.
Pay peanuts, get monkeys. (or the other way around...)
And FAA vs JAA education is like comparing a Lada to a Rolls
Ha!