Not to mention politics. Its ugly to lose this many people and job creation and protection is often encouraged by the government via incentive programs. If HP

Not to mention politics. Its ugly to lose this many people and job creation and protection is often encouraged by the government via incentive programs. If HP opened an office in some state and got a shit-ton of tax incentive and federal job creation credits, well, those pay off for a while. After those expire then its safe to cut these people. Or use the threat of cuts to get more credits. If these negotiations fail, then a big cut happens. Big companies don't really operate by simple supply vs demand laws. They play a much more complex game and many large businesses have long figured that gaming the system is just as profitable as actually shipping product.