“I asked a Seattle based Delta Airlines 330 captain . . . .”
Australopithecus,
Your worldview of the airline industry fits perfectly with your well-chosen pprune name.
A DAL captain is like you, a relic of the past fighting to maintain relevance and hardly an accurate yardstick of the US airline industry.
Also, your net figures for the DAL guy are not accurate. He would be paying a lot more tax than you imagine. You fall prey to the trap most Australians fall into. The cost of living is higher in the US than you think and housing is more expensive than you imagine. There are more hidden taxes than Australia too.
More importantly, salaries in the US are way lower for most people than they are in Australia. There are airline captains in the US flying jet aircraft for airlines classed as majors struggling to make 80k!
Why don’t you make a comparison between your apparently pitiful wage and a pilot employed by a newer unencumbered airline such as Spirit or Allegiant?
I have lived in the US for the past 15 years, worked here and Australia and it makes me sick to hear Australians who earn 300k complaining.