It isn't that anybody resents your good fortune, well I certainly don't. It is simply that you seem to have jumped into this pulpit to proclaim to the masses the terms & conditions that reflect this new reality. Recession, competition, supply and demand, they are indeed all contributory factors to the market rate. However the lack of regulation at the entry level is now eliminating any real career for prospective new entrants, as the requirements have been parred down to a class one medical and a well funded cheque book account.
For commands there is a significant pool of redundant labour which will serve to drop market rates, however it is disingenous for pop stars, and those who who have elected to extend their own careers by taking lower paid employment for additional pin money to be preaching to the masses about the new realities, when their own troughs are well and truly overflowing.
You are right in the sense that your own financial arrangements are a matter for you and nobody else. However they seem to have been promoted in this thread as a point of contention. I also look forward to drawing a fully funded pension and adding that to a substantial savings pot, and then continuing to work for anywhere from 5 to 10 years more with yet another salary, or a continuation of the one I have. So what if they halve it, I will still be much, much better off.
What about the industry? Well who cares! I will be OK, you will be OK and the other "I am alright Jacks" will be OK as well. Perhaps we can meet up for Twinings tea and discuss the merits of globalisation and 200 hour pilots and plane drivers and train drivers salaries. I am not sure our sons and daughters will forgive us showing the same complacancy that has already allowed this situation to develop, but never mind, they can take the inheritance and thereby afford to live on these wages as well!