brubin, you demonstrate a very compelling point - The Aviation Dream.
For the record, I will say again I'm agnostic when it comes to GA/Cadet/Military background.
Businessmen are only too happy to sell YOU, your dream. Unlike the GA & ex-Military pilots, you will feel no financial pain during your training.
For the GA pilot, they have to cough up their hard earned cash, week after week. They see exactly where their money goes. At any point, when the "Dream" isn't working for them, they take stock, look at others around the airfield and decide if it really what they want to do. They look at where their friends & colleges have gone, they know the T&C that they can expect as they make it through the industry. They can walk away at any point.
Military pilots get to see the lifestyle that they would lead if they make it through the training. They will only have a debt of time to serve, and given the subsidies on housing/ medical/pension will be remunerated quite well. The point is, this is all a known prior to making a long commitment.
For the cadet "sponsored" by a company all this is hidden, little up front, no weekly payments, don't worry about it. Why do you think Harvey Norman offer "Nothing to pay to 2014" ? - because people who feel pain immediately stop and make rational choices, they look very closely at the price they pay. Harvey Norman is trying to take away the pain to get the customer to buy something they probably can't afford.
And so to it is with these "credit schemes". No pain now, but later, once you are trapped by the debt burden to your employer you will understand. From what little information that j* post on their website, it will cost roughly $208,000 to get checked out as a line FO. This is about 75% more than you would paid your own way, feeling the pain.
I know you don't want to hear the reality, you want to extend the dream, but remember, that's all it is. The businessmen who design these schemes are selling "the dream", but are buying reality in the form a debt slave.
Last edited by breakfastburrito; 30th Jun 2010 at 01:17.