Why is it hard to fire? I thought it's super easy in the US.
You can lose people who might be key contributors. You can destroy morale in the rest of the company. Everyone else knows they might be next, so they will leave first chance they get. Finally, it signals to the market you are in trouble (hence why a lot of companies are doing it now: better to be just one more company doing layoffs when everyone else is doing it).
It's hard to look someone in the eye and say they're done
Morale-wise no.