I might play devils for a moment.
Lets say the industrial events of '89 is not responsible, even in part, for the gradual demise of salaries and conditions we see today.
The problem lies both in "perception" and supply / demand.
Business worldwide is continually under the squeeze of ever increasing efficiencies of scale, thanks to modernism of commication and automation, add to this catastrophie and war and you see a problem.
The fast paced nature of change makes for the "competitive edge" being so much more pertinent than it ever has been. This ties in to perception, and "ones worth". Can you honestly expect, in a country where pilot supply far outstrips demand, that johnny public would see a
VB captain on 140K a year as being "underpaid?" When he/she themselves have just completed six years of uni (graduating in honours) after busting an academic gut, to find there is scarcely a job to go to?
If its money and exemplary conditions youre after, then you have to look globally, and go to a place where the gap between supply and demand may be not so wide.
1989, whilst I tire of its constant re-hashing here, Is a glitch in history (a bad one I agree) is not responsible for the shape of the airline game today. I do admire the strength of those who fought to preserve their conditions, and do not agree in principle with those who broke ranks. However, its the name calling 14 years on of a small minority, that makes it hard to respect credibilty.
NG loves his flying, thats fine, I too hope after 20 or so years he/she sings the same tune. Just dont let us all down, by ever accepting a deal not agreed too by the collective masses, as money and conditions (like fair rostering etc) will one day be very important to you. You have gone a fair way in exposing your ignorance, by the remark about 200K and button pushing. To pilot an airliner of the jet variety takes a lot more than that, I hope one day you'll get to see that. This is a career path we hope to be on, look up career in the dictionary. You'll see that as long as productivity, responsibilty, and workload ( which all translates into stress) increases, one should be fairly remunerated.
What you do now IS easy, Ive done it, sure it was fun.
Whats important to me now is educating my child, owning my house, health insurance, retirement, maybe oneday a boat..........