Of course, this kind of thing has been going on for years, is still going on, and will continue into the future.
And always for the same reasons which we all know about.
You only have to look at some of the recent contracts offered by J* both here and in EnZed to see how many people are willing to fly an A320 for well below average wages, and with the likelihood of servicing massive training loans as well.
Read through some of the Euopean wannabees forums and look at the P2F schemes where not only are pilots paying for jet endorsements, they are paying to fly their first 500 hours on line.
But did this start overnight? Did pilots suddenly just start offering to work for free, or has there been a gradual lowering of what pilots are willing to get paid to fly bigger and bigger equipment until we get to the current situation?
Maybe, if pilots in the past weren't willing to earn, say $14,800 for a ME-IFR job like the bloke on this thread did:
http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-general-a...job-worth.html
and
maybe if pilots wouldn't accept flying under appalling conditions like this bloke did:
http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-general-a...ml#post6318126
then there wouldn't be pilots willing to work for free today!
Of course I'm being a bit harsh on
Hold_Short here, as he's far from the only pilot who's guilty of this kind of thing, and people have been doing this since well before he became a commercial pilot.
Bizarre, though, that he's either forgotten his recent past, or is showing some amazing hypocrisy; accusing others of continuing the decline of which he was recently party.
DIVOSH!