Gnirren,
I agree with a lot of what you have written here, except there's one thing that's even more frequently forgotten than, as Rossco puts it, what the hell the newbies are supposed to do now....and that's the guys and girls who are captains now trained in a very, VERY different world than the guys training now.
How many of them had to pay what - as a best guess - is probably an average of £50k to train? Very few I'd bet - because prices have risen hugely. Sponsored training - doesn't exist in any form worthy of the name any more....
Don't get me wrong, I'm not having a go at anyone, but merely asking for understanding that the situation for people wanting to train now is vastly different than it was back in 2000 or earlier.
Frankly, the point I think you're missing is that the costs now dictate that the student HAS to get a reasonable return - and the obvious way that's achievable in the modern aviation world is with a jet job. It's been mentioned many times that a first year FI can MAYBE hope to make as much as £20k...care to explain how you expect anyone with £50k debt - at £500 a month repayment is supposed to even countenance that?
I'm really not having a go, but the point is - newbies HAVE to have a jet job now to make it worth the investment.