Quote:
Originally posted by m21sniper
You are not in favor of a free market economy? Strange considering that you have no doubt significantly benefited from said free market. Pilots are very highly paid afterall.
In a fixed price 'equal value' market(aka a communist state) you'd make the same as(or slightly more than) the cashier at the seven eleven.
I have no problem at all with people making what they're worth. To me a pilot is a valuable commodity, and is worth the money he makes, just as a star shooting guard is a fantastically valuable commodity, and worth every bit he can get. If you can find a job flying around Cher for 450k a year i'd applaud you, i would not deride you as being 'overpaid.'
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Actually, M21 I am in favor of a free market. I didn't say that overpaid sports figures weren't raking in the kind of cash that motivates their owners to overpay them, I said I think it's a symptom of upside-down priorities. We're losing jobs overseas, losing education excellence, not funding proper enforcement of our borders, not maintaining a balanced national budget, not properly funding Veterans programs, not providing security for our seaports, hell, can't even operate our seaports ourselves, etc., etc., etc., but we can find the money to pay NBA players an average of over $4Mill per year. That's upside-down priorities in my book.
Point 2: Pilots negotiate contracts - that's free market. We have an obligation to provide the service we are skilled at (safe aircraft operation) with managers who are supposed to be skilled at airline management. I think we do that rather well. I don't think enough of them do their part well.
Point 3: The airline biz is not really "free market" because it is structured - from a management/employee standpoint - to be otherwise. Basic aviation skills and experience are what they are, but training is invariably different from one airline to another, and aircraft types - which require specialized training - may not be the same. I could not take myself from the airline I worked for to another airline in the same way an engineer (or b-ball player, for that matter) can move to another employer because the pay/benefits/management/advancement/whatever is better. When you get hired by an airline you basically have your first 2 or 3 years in which you can still be mobile; after that you're locked in. Period. That is inherently not "free-market" which requires mobility of capital and services from less desirable to more desirable as a feedback and control mechanism.
If your airline goes under or you lose your medical (easy to do), you'd better be young enough because it's time for job retraining.
Unfortunately, the airline biz has basically become the only mass-transportation system in this country. I would suggest that creates a single point of vulnerability which is not good for national security.
I should have been Cher's pilot - you wouldn't believe the pax the airlines get.