What happens over the 3 years from when the Oceanic 6 leave until they return?

Today a friend of mine asked me when the characters are on the island. He wasn't referring to the time jumps but what year it is in relation to the rest of the world. The correct answer is that the scenes we've seen thus far on the island take place 3 years before the current events we see off the island. I've always known this to be true but have taken this knowledge for granted. I never thought about the implications of this gap in time. Sawyer and the others on the island have been waiting 3 years for Locke to return with everyone who left. I then take it that when Locke turned the donkey wheel to leave the island he must have stopped the time jumps. Otherwise, everyone would be dead now. Charlotte appears to be dead after a couple days of cerebral hemorrhages; it's unlikely that everyone else would last much longer. The writers wouldn't dare kill off a handful of their primary characters unless the return of Locke and crew revives them somehow or the zombie season is about to commence (listen to the podcast and you'll get what I'm talking about). But yeah, what happens over this three year time span? I guess we'll just have to wait and see...