L337, to quote you:
"1. True: I earn shedloads. Suck it up poor boy.
2. True. Better than having to call yourself a Looser.
3. True: I get plenty of time down route. I travel to Exotic places, and see plenty.
4. True: Plenty of shagging the Stewardesses. The married ones are the best, and the most enthusiastic.
The truth hurts poor boy."
After I left the RAF in 1997 I earned "shedloads" - for a limited period of time working in Bosnia/Serbia. That enabled me to retire at the age of 40. I have not the need to ever work again. I think that you will find that ,in your opinion, I am a loser - not a looser.
If, as you brag, you have had many "married" stewardesses, then I think that your lifespan will have been somewhat shortened when a husband clocks you...
The point that I was trying to make was that there is no comparison between earnings/life satisfaction/EGO trip & quality of life if you are a slave to your employer. You are totally expendable to your employer. For every sacked ATPL pilot there are 10's - if not 100's ready to take your job.
Ask any ex-FJ pilot about his job-satisfaction after spending loads of money & "aspiring" to an airline second seat. After a year they are bored, pissed off with "regulations" & realise that they wasted their money.
There is no excitement about going to work. Most economy airlines pay very little considering their demands on your family life & you hardly "fly" the airplane.
I am NOT a (qualified) pilot, PPL or otherwise, however I will say that (unofficially) I spent a month with the Belgium Air Army in 1991 where a fantastic Sgt tought me to fly the 25 year old Allhoutte chopper to the point I could fly with the skids skimming the tops of the cornfields in the Ardennes, fly under power lines & skim along the Rhine, dodging the barges. I was also (while at RAF Wyton) briefly taught to fly the Canberra as a target against Lightnings from Binbrook. Then at Coningsby I (Unofficially) was briefly taught by 56 Sqn to fly the F3 Tornado (I was limited to 7.0G).
Parabellum: I am certainly not "failed aircrew". I have Vitiligo therefore the RAF refused me a flying medical category due to me not being able to serve in extremely sunny climates - as I burn immediately.
Your lot is a bloody good one. Don't denigrate it. You are paid extremely well for one of aviation's most boring jobs. But understand that there are hundreds of unemployed but expensively qualified pilots ready to take your job immediately. That's why the carriers will sack you at the drop of a hat for any indescrection.