NG - I think you should have said "Last Post" and not Final Post.
Lots of responses attacking "greed", and yet if that is the only take away that most of you have from this excellent posting by Wiley, then you have completely missed the context of the conversation.
Over the years that I have been in aviation pilot salaries have gone from extraordinary heights to somewhere close to mediocrity - the fact that salary levels are inconsistent across airlines virtually prooves the point that downsizing pilot salary is not re-aligning them with their actual worth, but moreover "how much can we take out of these guys/gals".
The bigger issue in your profession is that management look at the cost of the pilot as a target for savings, rather than identifying an appropriate salary for responsibility. They would, quite literally, get you down to clerical levels if they could. The greatest concern is that no-one in this industry has determined a minimum acceptable salary for a pilot. Until someone drawers that line then the lot of a pilot will only get worse. When management look at an aircraft term sheet they know that they can haggle and bargain to get a good rate - an appropriate rate. They also understand that that will only fall so far. When they look at a pilot salary they don't see any level that they cannot fall below.
The comments of D-Rate and NG actually point the finger at the career pilot for having been so greedy that commercial airlines could not survive. That is just so much bull****. It is the likes of D-Rate and NG who misinterpret high salaries as greed, when in fact they are a just reward. D-Rate - the reason that you are living in a declining system is because you are letting it decline, not because of someone else's greed.
Pilots can quite rightly feel abused that their salaries are quickly falling to the same level as a baggage loader - someone explain to me how that is appropriate. It isn't and is testimony to the issues created by the likes of NG and D Rate who consider salary as secondary to getting a seat in a commercial jet.
For all the guys in GA - your lot is only going to get worse. As commercial jet pilot salaries fall the knock-on effect is that your own seats will be devalued.
NG and D-Rate stop looking out the cockpit window and start looking at the guys that are on your back giving you a damn good rodgering - one day you'll ask yourself - "why does my arse hurt so much".