Always horrible to see the way the pilot community rounds on itself when the chips are down. Same record, different tune to post 9/11.
All we are seeing here is the forces of supply and demand at work, yet we all seek to blame each other for the situation we now face. I have seen one poster on this thread berate the 200 hour wannabe on another thread for accepting reduced t&c, whilst saying that he as an old hand is "forced" to accept lower t&c if he is to get back into paid employment. The argument appears to be, I'll do what I need to to get paid employment, but damn you if you do the same.
The reason we can't have the 1500 hour minimum for pay-to-fly here in the UK, is where will wannabes get these 1500 hours from? The USA has a well developed GA market, which we do not. The rapid expansion of the last few years as a result of the rise of the low cost sector couldn't have been fuelled by ex GA pilots. There simply weren't enough.
What will be interesting though, is now that the low cost market is now at saturation in the UK, when the jobs start coming again it will not include large scale growth, just attrition and more tradition levels of annual expansion. Where will airlines get their pilots from then? Will 200 hour wannabes still be recruited? The accepted thought at the moment is that they will try to make money from the RHS by pay to fly schemes. However, my airline is recruiting at the moment and is famed for its cost cutting, so it could be assumed that they would go down this route, but it hasn't happened. They are not recruiting low hours wannabes, even though that would help balance out the relatively senior FO demographic.
Admittedly with the current situation, all are type rated, but the interesting point remains, experienced drivers are being sought rather than any attempt to "make money" from a pay-to-fly scheme, despite the very strong cost cutting culture of the management.
Interesting times ahead.