I hate when companies say they're "forced" to do layoffs. Elon could easily pay six figure salaries to 14,000 people for over a decade before he noticed even the slightest change to his net worth. What they really mean is that by upending the lives of 14,000 families, they're hoping to get a temporary bump in the stock price this quarter so they can buy another yacht.
I really find the hatred of layoffs some of the most nonsensical criticism of capitalism.
If you are going to pay people for doing nothing useful, because your company no longer needs their work, why make them go to work? You can save their time and your money (office costs, taxes, administration, etc.) if you just give them the money after you fire them.
I think it's more so that the corporate culture lately is extremely short-sighted and makes lay-offs in incredibly dumb ways (i.e. you can see their future half-year problems). Which many times will need to be re-hired by paying lots of money to idiotic recruiters to hire new people (because the older folks have switched ship and are not coming back) and train them. Lots of instability caused by extremely poor management (who get payed a lot even though they make stupid decisions).
I mean, what you say is true although I suspect it is a lot less common than the headlines would lead you to believe. Its probably just selection bias since news don't report on companies running well.
Either way, that is not what the comment I was reacting to is saying.
Indeed... top comment is a bit more... emotional. I just try to perceive where the general emotion is coming from (because it is definitely shared by many)