I understand the principles of mathematics that dictate the operation of a business/airline.
It's hard to pay decent wages if you are selling only 19 seats on an Emb-120, but have to pay two pilots.

If a regional is not making any profit then why should they stay in business?
If they need to furlough to cut expenses or because people are not buying tickets, that actually makes financial sense to me. After all, what good is it if they chose to NOT furlough some pilots and then the entire airline goes out of business?
I'm not the "down with capitalism and big business" kind of guy.
Big business is just as good of an economic stimulus package as the military is. People gotta get paid so they can buy stuff.