Huh, seems like an "oh, those guys were probably useless anyway, they deserve to get laid off" attitude is prevalent to an unhealthy degree...
And not enough of an understanding of "well, we need to boost the stock prices right now so my options are worth more, or you grab that quick mega bonus, because look, I just 'cut costs' and aren't I a genius for that?" mentality that tends to be way more prominent in these decisions.
The stock market and shareholders do not give a rat's rump about the long-term health of a company.
I've experienced a few too many "Chainsaw Al (Dunlap)" incidents myself.
Yet, when being on the receiving end of that, they weren't so shameless as to claim any of us were dead weight. Where'd this attitude come from?
Edit: typos/autocorrect fixes