Discrimination against the unemployed

Why is it that in difficult times certain sectors of our society purposely turn their backs on the disenfranchised? It never ceases to amaze me how baseless stereotypes and completely inappropriate perceptions take hold of normally reasonable people in times of societal and economic stress. In the 1950s the term 'communist' was tossed around to libel people who disagreed with the majority; in the 1960s people who supported equal rights for all were viciously attacked by the police; in the 1970s the Vietnam War polarized many Americans. Now, the greatest recession this country has seen has led employers to implement policies to prevent hiring people who were laid off or have been unemployed for longer than six months. The perception that people were laid off because they were incompetent, even though evidence makes it clear they were laid off because of the economy. Experts say it is not illegal to discriminate against the unemployed. How sad. How do you combat this? How do you defend the rights of those society refuses to see or acknowledge? Check out In the job hunt, the stigma of being laid off is hard to erase.