Treat <i> All </i> Layoffs as Human Tragedies

Regarding your article about Orange County employees (“Coping Without Jobs--or Answers,” March 19): Excuse me, but where were the tears and vast outpouring of sympathy for the thousands of private-sector employees who lost their jobs in the county over the past few years? Are they somehow more responsible for a company layoff than county workers are for the present fiasco? Is a county worker less deserving of the short end of the stick when management screws up? Is their loss of income somehow more devastating? I think not.

Now, wipe the smile off your face and think again, my fellow county conservatives. Your unwillingness to sacrifice so much as the price of a cappuccino a week for a sales-tax increase is just as irresponsible as the mismanagement that created this mess. The truth is we all live here and we all need each other. There are answers. They’re just not easy, and they don’t fit neatly into politically correct ideologies.

RICHARD ALMADA

Mission Viejo

* Any time a person loses a job it is a traumatic experience, to say the least, but a sad and true fact of life. The articles highlighting Orange County employees being laid off were wearisome and verbose. Of course, these people are victims and certainly didn’t do anything to warrant being laid off, but then others of us who have been laid off in the private sector for years already know this. No lengthy articles are written about us. In February of this year, I was laid off from a job I held for 10 years. Two close friends have also been laid off in recent months, one at the job 17 years, the other eight years. Are their layoffs any less tragic than the county’s layoffs? While I definitely feel sympathy for them, I say, welcome to the real world.

SHARI CHRISTIAN

Tustin

* Please allow me to comment on your article, “Victims of Circumstance” (March 19). I’ve been a self-employed real estate professional for seven years in Orange County. My average work week is 60 hours, working nights and weekends on a regular basis.

I have had the misfortune of working with many of the displaced workers from all areas of the private sector during the last five years, as they have lost their homes, their families, their jobs and their self-esteem.

I am insulted and infuriated by your article. The salaries quoted, along with the workweek county employees put in, along with the benefits they enjoy, are an outrage. We have grossly overpaid government employees far too long, and it’s now time to pay the piper.

You bemoan the fact that 200 have been laid off, with maybe 1,000 more to go. These layoffs don’t have to happen! You could fill these positions at 25% less cost tomorrow, right out of the unemployment rolls in this county!

Where has your paper been with the “human interest” stories of the thousands of private-sector Orange County residents who have lost their homes? Where was your compassion as thousands of Orange County real estate professionals have gone broke as our market plunges? Where was your compassion as dozens of Orange County companies left for states with less highly regulated economies, and their jobs went with them?

For you to only now become interested in the human tragedy of layoffs and recession, to bleed for our poor “government workers” while editorializing for tax increases to reduce the pain, is absurd and an insult to the hard-working citizens of Orange County who have been struggling to survive for the last five years.

DALE WILLIAMS

Mission Viejo