Extremely large companies enrich their bank accounts and the salaries of their CEOs by delaying payment to their very large vendors for 90 days or more. Those very large vendors then delay payment to their medium-size vendors who delay payment to their smaller vendors who delay payment – out of shear necessity – to the very small vendors, often self-employed people, such as the lady who cleans our office.
A $100 late payment to the maid can put her out of business. The interest the extremely large companies at the top of the pyramid “earn” by holding onto money they owe to others, longer, directly inflates their control of the economy. Their delay only serves to make the $100 payment to the smallest vendor in the food chain even more delayed. At some point it leads to putting people out-of-business and on-the-street.
What is trickling down in the economy is, at its essence: bad faith. One could argue the more appropriate name for this common American business phenomenon would be “S#!t Flows Downhill.”
Good-faith business practices must be enforced starting at the top and at every step along the way. Ethics and fair dealing must return to our values as people and to the way we run our companies whether they are extremely large or extremely small.
