Mr A Tis - I do agree with your point in general, today's inquisitive 15 year old may just be offering pilots a job in a few years who knows ... though call me cynical but I smell a little wind up here..
Think though about your own comment, regarding the 'people running' the airlines you list as failures in such negative terms. You are totally out of line and here is why.
These are the very people that gave many 'Ppruners' a start in aviation, carried millions of people safely to destinations across the World and created thousands of jobs. Without them 'taking the risk' and 'putting their money where their mouth is' no one would be going anywhere.
In many cases these are the people that started these airlines with help only from loyal teams whilst others did everyting to destroy them. They in the end were the ones that laid awake at night fighting to save their own necks and the jobs of the staff that have given so much only in many cases losing everything in doing what they believed to be right.
There is an old saying " The man that never made a mistake never made anything" and we all get it wrong sometimes.
You ask for some respect for our friend that started this thread, may I as someone that ran one of the airlines you list, please ask for a similar amount of respect from you.
If you are not already a successful airline executive may I suggest you have a go yourself and see what a walk in the park running an airline is ( NOT!!).
Thankyou - rant over.
PS; To refer to Dan Air, Air Europe etc as business failures is very wrong in my view.