Because they've been gripped by a collective monkey-see, monkey-do type insanity of valuing the short-term savings of not having to pay those laid off over the

Because they've been gripped by a collective monkey-see, monkey-do type insanity of valuing the short-term savings of not having to pay those laid off over the much larger long-term opportunity cost of the work those people would have done. The entirety of this "current economic reality" is a self-fulfilling prophecy from those using those words to self-justify their actions.