Do you have any idea how much money United would lose if they tried doing the 50 seat RJ routes with mainline airplanes? or how much revenue they would lose if they didn't provide the service at all?
In my opinion the main problem for the legacy carriers is that the government will issue an operating certificate to anyone who can meet the requirements. There's no thought given to balancing supply and demand so airlines can make money and provide stable, good paying jobs.
The furlough situation would be a lot better if Virgin America, Mesa Hawaii, Jet Blue, etc we never allowed to start up. Maintaining good paying jobs and decent retirements should be the goal.
The only advantage the newer airlines have is that they don't have to provide the pay and benefits that the legacy airlines do (or used to). That is not a brilliant business move or good for America, it's just ruins a lot of peoples lives (a lot of people we all know).
Cheers,
Scott