I would like to apologise for unwittingly hijacking this thread - I genuinely did not intend to do so. Nonetheless, an interesting discussion has ensued that is actually quite valuable. With the notable exception of seasexsun, a 'sense of the meeting' has developed as the Quakers would say!
There are clearly variations in the different learning rates and natural talent levels of different pilots. From what I read seasexsun is blessed with an unusual level of ability and skill that I, alas, never possessed. Consequently flying a swept-wing jet is easy and requires little or no past experience to do it safely and well. Indeed, having read his comments I am surprised our managers are not scouring the Job Centres of Europe as we speak, in search of likely lads to fly them at greatly reduced rates. Nonetheless, for the rest of us more limited pilots who do feel the need for experience to improve our skill base, doing the job for a considerable period of time has brought clear benefits.
It seems to me that, despite many aspects of our lives in Western Europe being wrong, there are some things we are doing well at. One of those is aviation and it is good occasionally to reflect on why our accident rate is heading in the right direction. Should we sit back and congratulate ourselves? Absolutely not! Nonetheless we should recognise that the way we do aviation is usually very professional, and a number of the practices we adopt are worth reflecting on by other sections of the wider aviation community. One of those practices is ensuring that our pilots are well-trained and have the necessary skills AND experience to carry out the duties they are asked to perform. I personally like the idea of the Captain at the front of the aircraft I am flying in having substantial experience in the role he is undertakeing - one or two people here do not seem quite as fussy. It appears to have paid significant dividends to numerous highly-respected companies. The fact that other countries outside our sphere of influence do not emulate these practices is their loss - and we should not be embarrassed to say that.
Most sensible people on this forum seem to be agreeing that it is of overall benefit to aviation to ensure that Captains on jets have flown them previously as First Officers -and it is difficult to see any other credible view. Once again, my sincere apologies to the original contributor here who was asking an altogether different question.