It is really remarkable how far that group has fallen. It seems like it was only a few years ago that they were a vibrant source of information, intelligent stuff.
I was listening to the Diana Rehm program today and she spent a whole damn hour (or at least I think she did. I had to turn it off) giving a platform to some asshole from the airline industry bemoaning how terrible it was that they were having trouble getting qualified pilots. After 20 minutes of this BS, (to Rehm's credit) she asked him if it was true the average starting salary for commercial pilots was only $25K a year, and actually under $20K a year for regional carriers, despite the fact that pilots were required to have 4 years of expensive, highly specialized training. That's about $23/hour -- barely more than you can make as a Wal*Mart greeter, and still sleep in your own bed every night.
The guy admitted that and then went back to his rant. Rehm never got back to that point. I mean, how complicated is this? Pay people a salary commensurate with the education and the difficulty of the work and there will be no shortage. Simple as that. It is called Supply / Demand. She never said that once in the 20 minutes I was listening.
She had an "equal time-to-both-equally-valid-positions guest from the pilots union. At one point he referred the the industry guy's comments as "hogwash", which they were. Rehm jumped all over him and made him retract the comment, but never had a discussion of WHY the comments were hogwash. There was never a discussion of all the airlines going through fake bankruptcies in order to cut salaries and benefits of the pilots. None of that.
A completely wasted 20 minutes that I will never get back. NPR should be ashamed of itself. This false equivalency bullshit must stop.
= new reply since forum marked as read
