The big lie about the airline industry is that it's a viable industry. It never was. Airports, aircraft manufacturing, air traffic control - everything, is all subsidized by taxpayers. Air crews and mechanics were subsidized by the taxpayers for decades since historically most air crews and mechanics were trained in the military.
As the military scaled down flying in the 1970s and 1980s, the airline industry reached out to more civilian-only pilots. In the 1980s only 66% of airline pilots were ex-military and by the late 1990s, the airlines crossed the point where 51% of airline pilots had no previous military flight training. That number has continuously increased to where the current estimation is that only 33% of airline pilots have any military background at all.
https://simpleflying.com/how-many-commercial-pilots-have-military-backgrounds/
The high number of training hours that the individual must bear, with the risks of not progressing far enough to pay it off, remove a lot of candidates from the job market. It's one thing to have your training paid for as part of your military obligation and then fly as a civilian with a military pension, it's another to pay your own way all the way through, especially when the pay is so relatively low compared the costs to enter the field.
The airline industry, like many industries, began selling "Didn't Earn It" (DEI) hiring of lesser-qualified individuals with the intent to silence complaints by claiming any such complaints are "sexist" or "racist".
I guess you are correct.
the USA paid a shiite load of money to teach me how to service military aircraft.
Boeing hired me, I guess they got all that
Military aircraft experience for “Free”.
I got out of the military as quick as I could.
But I will say this, they train people.
Civilians beg people.
Who would you rather have in an aircraft situation,
ex military or a community college affirmative action student?