Bla bla bla,
When I got to SLC in 1987 with Delta we had roughly 900 pilots in that base. When I left 12 years later, we had 600 and still shrinking entirely due to the fact that Skywest was flying mainline routes with rjs. You can blame management all you want, it actually helped them into bankrutcy, they love rjs. With a casm of 12 to 14 cents it always will be a money losing proposition. Ask the guys at IFLY how well it worked for them to try to make money without a legacy supplimenting their bottom lines.
The long and the short, you are only worth what a company will pay. You can't compare startup companies with established ones. If you have spent any time in the business world you would know this. Things will change at VA, skybus and the like because this companies are going to make money and lots of it. Read the histories of swa, fedex, ups and see what payscales were like when these companies started. In 1986 I turned down jobs at fed ex, ups and didnt even waste my time with swa because the pay was so low. Things change, times change. Educate yourself on things that have happened in the past and you won't sound so stupid in the future.