Wow BimJim, you sound like a bitter old man!
Your information is at best outdated and at worst deliberately misleading. Some of what you said is true, about flying as not being as glamorous as it once was, but the days of the low worked/high paid airline pilot are well and truly done. But you'll find that's the case worldwide.
There was an old joke about a BWIA pilot not being able to see a Liat aircraft because 'it's too small'. 'Like your salary!' came the reply. But as I said, it's an OLD joke. CAL's salaries were about the same as BWIA's were when it was closed down at the start of 2007. Since then they've been supplemented with various raises and bonuses and are now well in excess of anything Liat pays.
TALPA has been recognized as the pilot's bargaining body by CAL for years now and may not have the power that it once did, but many positive changes have been made and continue to be made.
I've been in the game for over 20 years now and have seen scant evidence of 'daddies pulling strings' however I'm not saying it doesn't happen. But once again, I think you'll find that worldwide.
Flying is still a great way to earn a living however you have to start early and have something to fall back on. To shoot down someone's dream just because things didn't work out for you comes off as sour grapes.
To answer some questions asked here, CAL's HR department is like the secret service. Nobody knows when vacancies will come up until they do. However with a wash of ATR72-600's due starting in October and 2 767-300's that need crewing this year, it's a safe bet that they'll be hiring sooner rather than later.