You're giving me a choice between risking the company's failure and rooking some of the employees out of pay they could get if they were more self-serving?

I deny the choice. I think most companies that make a habit out of underpaying good people to stay barely in the black don't survive in the long haul. If I were faced with that choice, I'd be honest with everybody about the financials and we'd work something out. Either we're pursing something pretty lucrative, in which case it's a temporary deviation from market rates, or we're barking up the wrong tree, in which case the company isn't worth doing.