The guy who I'm working with to get my contract puts it well when he says... "They need us because they make everything so hard over there, that they get in their own way!"
I have to admit, it is very odd to observe India.. I've been in and out of there with my last job flying the MD11 in freight (mind you goods made in India for consumption abroad to boot!) ..and it used to amaze me the amount of bureaucracy and red tape that one had to go thru to operate as aircrew in and out of India (mostly Mumbai and Channai). I mean it struck me as though they were trying their best to impede us form our job with the number of stamps and signed copies in triplicate of documents and forms! I had thought that carbon paper was extinct until I started to operate in and out of India. It's almost like a jobs program to keep people employed maybe?
The oddest part is that the average Indian is quite smart, more or less literate and quite able to be well educated. There is no logical reason why a country with 1.1 Billion people can't man their airplanes with experienced pilots except to say that maybe their system to make pilots is as inefficient and bureaucratic as their airport duty in gauntlet for visiting aircrew.
British Bureaucracy run amok, I've heard it called.. but frankly it's paralyzing their potential!
As for the topic of the US airlines.. well, here is that in a nut shell.. DEREGULATION IS STUPID! in the US, Airlines are the ONLY deregulated public utility, and this is the result.