Dear d105
First of all I wish to clarify that I didn't blame anybody for looking to a shorter "Right Seat career" and my reaction was not disgruntled:I understand perfectly the motivations behind those frustrations.
But I wanted just to make soon clear what is the value which drives me in being still a pilot after many years...and I am sure this is common to many others...in spite of all those naive arguments brought up by many and trying to explain why those "old fellas" have to stay abusively (...this is an adverb I use just to summarize the feelings...) "on board", being the most popular: a lot of money earned but burnt out due to many families and divorces; in their retirement time, not enjoying to play golf or going sailing or having permanent "drinking sessions" in their villas, and others which now I can't recall.
Another "strong" argument was that they are geriatrics (I'll come back another time on this...as I am getting already too long on the previous stuff).
First of all, not all "geriatrics" like to go beyond 60.
Then,IMHO, I find those "arguments" rude and lacking respect to people which they don't even know and that might have taken decisions (right or wrong...but who has the right to say that?...) in their private life which affected only their lives...what has been the impact of those decisions to the "young fellas" careers?...for me: zero.
I myself, something 40 years back, when I joined an airline, saw that pilots coming from AF with a couple years of experience, got their command in 6months/one year (!): as I had only one year in the AF (and about 300 hours) my career began on a wrong foot...getting my command after 15 years...(with few companies "out of businness experiences" in between)...also on those times (40 years back) careers "schedule" were very unpredictable...
And the "wrong foot" began to work from the "first day" (that is after a year in the company): the first oil crises hit the industry (at the beginning of the 70s) and "my" company decided to get rid of the lasts-in (fair enough).
The "cheese on the maccaroni" was that the company, the unions, the colleagues (with safe jobs) gave us valid moral support:..."you're young, you can get easily another career in a different job somewhere else"...what a great moral bust for people having the passion for flying!
At the end, the passion was the best driver.
Now, @60+, the "environment", tries to tell me again what I should do:again?
Again clearing the path to others?
Being politically correct, I just say that I "maintain course and speed", as again, I don't see any valid reason for which I should stop flying, being that my passion.
These conflicting views might start a war between generations which would be useful to nobody: we have already a kind of war out of there (the pension problems between the "fathers and the sons"...being the latter those paying for their fathers' pensions and with "good" chances to get nothing when they retire).
Financial people would say that these ups and downs depend on the demand-supply situations in the market...and very little...from those "old fellas" which don't want to clear the way...and the market outlooks show encouraging signs...
So no critics or blame to anybody, please understand me: it's just "a view of the world" from a different perspective and any perspective has its right to exist...bringing respect to the different ones...