The price of the second pilot with all the overhead keeps going up and up. If you knew what a pilot actually cost, and how it’s increasing, you’d not have said what you did. You’d also easily bring in $300 an hour as a consultant. I’ve never met an employer who actually knew what his employees were really, truly costing them. What they do know is that number goes up all the time, and DC keeps adding more and more.
Until we vastly simplify employment laws and labor taxes, humans are going to increasingly face stiffer and stiffer competition from automation. Look at where all the capital is going. It’s going to companies with tiny work forces and big profits.