Lost decade

Dude. I get distracted.

”Hi, my name is Derg and I’m a talking…SQUIRREL!”

Seriously, I’ll get involved with a post and come to the realization that no one is actually reading it and my mind wanders off into other activities.
You mean you don't type out a brilliant response, then say "oh hell with this" and then just close your browser and get up from your chair?
The owl ran afoul of the comatose coxswain!
Far out
 
I don’t know if you’d qualify, the mins were like 1000 MTPIC and 3 shuttle landings.
My shuttle time is all center-line thrust. Does that count?

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My airline had 3 man aircraft well into the late 2000s, but many, many of those jobs were eliminated during the course of that decade.

I still remember being at Hickam in the 2005 timeframe and seeing NW DC-10s coming in and out of there.

Some airlines got rid of their 727s just prior to 9/11, some just or a year or two after. I believe USAir was one of the first to get rid of them in that timeframe, and Delta one of the last.
 
I love this diagram. I've explained that concept verbally for decades, but it makes a lot more sense visually.

All for the cost of an arm and leg, and increasing far over inflation every year, representing over 1 trillion dollar in debt. And every step through those educational degree process costs more and more for the increased enlightenment. In that sense, it’s like the Church of Scientology.
 
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It's especially frustrating when they're not great pilots and are just trying to mail it in ... but based on their credentials (often military) you know there's a good chance that they're right.

Sorry about that. I’ve seen the same thing. They all aren’t like that, but some certainly are to my embarrassment.
 
All for the cost of an arm and leg, and increasing far over inflation every year, representing over 1 trillion dollar in debt. And every step through those educational degree process costs more and more for the increased enlightenment. In that sense, it’s like the Church of Scientology.

The mechanism behind college tuition is identical to health care, and why it costs $1200 to fix a dime sized rust spot on your car at the body shop.
 
I graduated in 2008. I still remember how every other job available post was like “C182 corporate pilot position available, successful candidate will be willing to manage aircraft, sweep hangar floor, shine bosses shoes, pay for own hotel on overnights, and contribute out of pocket to company beer fridge fund. Expect to fly about 100 hours a year, all time logged as dual given as the boss is working on his private cert, 24/7 on call, $30k/ year, must live within 5 minutes of company hangar in Lubbock, TX (no relocation assistance provided).”

if only.
 
Pilots can be some of the dumbest most idiotic people you’ll ever meet. Sad, but true!

Think about the guys around the airport earning almost a half-million dollars per year complaining because the line at Chipotle is long and how the airline discount is only 10%
Kind of like CC complaining about a $316 raise in SS taxes?
 
Get the government out of the guaranteed student loan business. A person doesn't "have" to go to college. At this point, it's become a racket.

Individually, no. But as a society, we do need millions of people to go to colleges. The only question is who should pay for it. It's about 2.5% of GDP in the US, something society can clearly afford, and in line with the rest of the western world spends. A system with no government support would mean the rich getting even richer. A system entirely funded by taxes would mean less choice for students. Or what we have right now, something in the middle.

Fewer government backed loans would mean spending more for direct grants, graduating fewer students, or importing more immigrants. Otherwise, labor shortages that hurt all of us.
 
Kind of like CC complaining about a $316 raise in SS taxes?

Per year. Yeah, it’s a legit complaint. Next year the cap will go up again. From 142,800 to (insert number). Then take the difference, and 6.2% of that is the new paycut for 2022.


And I don’t know where this half a million dollar pilot comes from. He’s a Delta overlord, they probably make that much. Me? Nowhere close to 500k.
 
Individually, no. But as a society, we do need millions of people to go to colleges. The only question is who should pay for it. It's about 2.5% of GDP in the US, something society can clearly afford, and in line with the rest of the western world spends. A system with no government support would mean the rich getting even richer. A system entirely funded by taxes would mean less choice for students. Or what we have right now, something in the middle.

Fewer government backed loans would mean spending more for direct grants, graduating fewer students, or importing more immigrants. Otherwise, labor shortages that hurt all of us.

The system is broken. We should not make it “free” and transfer the burden of tuition directly to taxpayers. These colleges/universities will go insane with spending and tuition increases if that happens.

College was never meant to be what it is now.

 
No one wants to talk about how parents are partly to blame for tuition inflation, gotta make sure that the school Braxton and Skye go to has the latest greatest student life building, an “athletic village”, and 37 different school-funded intramural sports, which in turn require a lot of 6-figure admin salaries to oversee.
 
The system is broken. We should not make it “free” and transfer the burden of tuition directly to taxpayers. These colleges/universities will go insane with spending and tuition increases if that happens.

Great, we can get taxpayers out of the higher education finance business. But since we still need doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers, school teachers and everything else, we will need to get that labor from somewhere. If it isn't here, we are going to import labor from the rest of the world. The consequence of that is that the kid who can't afford college here will also never get a good job either, because it will go to someone imported from Mexico or India or China.
 
Good points being made on the broader context. On the more narrow question of getting to a "career" job and the trials and tribulations thereof, I never felt that it was a trial, and I would have been ok jumping from 135 to 91 making a decent, middle-class salary (and of course complaining all the way, it's part of the job). And I think it was basically just dumb luck that that wasn't what happened.

I mean, sure, if I hadn't done the shoe-leather-work, I for SURE would have been flying rich people and their golf clubs from New York and California to beaches and mountains for the rest of my working years, but there wasn't any one thing that turned the key in the lock, or if there was, I have NO idea what it was. Might have been meet and greets, might have been meeting a C/A in the training department (through absolute happenstance) who put my stuff in, might have been my app popped to the top of the pile when the person in charge was getting ready to go home and feed their dog and they were just like "sure, whatever, interview this dork".

Two things you can be sure of, imho. 1: You can't control how the spice flows. You pays your money and takes your chances. The only thing you have any control of us how much effort you put in. and 2) (really kind of a corollary to (1)): You won't know how your career went until it's over.

Life is full to overflowing of crap to worry about already, don't borrow trouble trying to decipher a black box which most likely doesn't even HAVE an algorithm, just a lot of slightly-broken parts whirring around and producing largely random sparks.
 
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