Re: Bank of mum and dad
Yep, it's just fantasy-money territory even for those with good/great jobs. Training to the point of being able to co-pilot an A319 is something of the order of 150k of costs (not withstanding living costs) - and then - you are still not likely to be able to land a job. It's too expensive to save up for even with a "great" job, and "drip-feeding it" doesn't work either.
Military pilots are much rarer a thing. In the 70's and 80's the default for many was to do your tour of duty or two then a conversion course. Todays air forces are very much smaller, so that convenient pool to draw from is now much smaller. (Particularly, outside the US. The RAF is a tiny fraction of what it used to be).
Demand for air travel is as high as ever, so, frankly, it's contingent on airlines to start offering training in meaningful numbers at levels that can be afforded by mere mortals. This is not a difficult thing to arrange - make the training cost repayable by years of service.
Or just pay for it out of your profits / charge customers accordingly. It is, so to speak, the "cost of doing business".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
