AT&T is gutting its ranks. The company plans to cut 263 workers in New Jersey. They tried to pass this off as necessary adjustments. They labeled it right-sizing. It is nothing more than discarding human capital to protect shareholder value. This predatory practice is depressingly predictable.

Massive corporations treat entire groups of people as variable costs. They trim these people when quarterly projections start to wobble. This is the inevitable cycle of late-stage capitalism. The structure demands unending growth but pays out only through endless payroll reduction. They do not actually need workers. They only need the convincing illusion of functioning systems.

The stated reasons for these cuts are the usual corporate smokescreen. They are merely mechanisms of decay. “Streamlining operations” means sheer panic. “Focusing resources” means firing everyone who actually understood how the systems worked. “Agile workforce adjustment” means you are nothing but a replaceable commodity.

The reality for the 263 workers is brutal. Their jobs are not undergoing a strategic pivot. They are being eliminated because their time was deemed less valuable than the cost of keeping them employed. This is not a temporary hiccup. It is the ongoing clearance of the slate.