The reason why I posted this is to stirr-up reactions.
This does seem to work...
Look, we are faced with pay-to-fly cadets, who hand money to fly commercially. Why is that? Simple: Because there is a vast overcapacity of young inexperienced pilots.
Make the entry into our profession harder and you will create a pilot shortage in the long-term, which is what we need to regain our conditions we had before. At the same time, we need to improve training and skill on the flightdeck. Captaincy seems to become a dying trade. Stick and rudder has to be taught from the first day at the flight academy as is captaincy. How can anyone say nowadays that gaining an ATPL is difficult?! What would they have done 10 years ago before the JAA examinations and the question-banks?! That was university level, but given four times as fast.
It are not only the Airlines who need to change their behaviour towards their Officers (and yes, that is what we are, some tend to forget it seems), but also the regulatory instances and ourselves.