Of course I understand the money/bank/interest quotient, but in today's climate at the very least, where interest is close enough to zero and work short, then when better a time to pay bills promptly and keep the money in circulation, particularly that of the little man who needs it most?
Let's look at the impact this would have.
Time Warner Inc had revenue of $47B in FY08. Let's err on the side of caution and use 5% annual interest rate,
much lower than what they can get even in these days (TWX don't run their business on savings accounts). If they paid every bill one day earlier than necessary with 5% interest rate for an entire year, that would yield:
$46,000,000,000 * 5% / [360 days] = $6,388,888
Not even Time Warner would give away six point four million dollars, especially in today's climate. To keep things in context, that's the budget of a small Hollywood film, which would employ
hundreds of those "little men" for months just to make the film, including the on-set still photographer, and provide work for the thousands who work in distribution, screening, concessions, DVD/BD pressing, sales, advertising, critique, etc.
And let's not forget (once again) that thirty days has been the standard payment terms in B2B transactions for generations.
There's much more to this than the above back-of-the-envelope calculation of course, but this gives an idea of the magnitude of paying early.