Sometimes paying TOO much is the right thing to do!

    No one likes to overpay for anything.   We will return an item with light-speed if we find out another place is selling it for 10% less to save a few dollars.   We get angry when we look at a restaurant bill and see extra items on it we did not receive.   It's just how we are wired.

    Even when it comes to paying for mistakes and errors we have made we want to get off cheap.   Take for example when Intel, Google, Apple and several other companies got caught colluding to reduce demand for jobs they both rely on by making a "do-not-call-list" (or "do-not-hire-list").   This went on from 2005 to 2010 when it finally got found out.   The companies had compiled a list of some 60,000 employees who they wanted to keep at their desks and not pay more for.   I was one of those employees. A judge ordered in the settlement for the companies to pay a total of $300M to the workers (or $5000 per employee).  Many who analyzed the fine said they got off easy.

https://www.theverge.com/2015/1/15/7554397/apple-google-intel-and-adobe-poaching-settlement-415-million

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYtL_wEPj9A

(Oh and they didn't have to admit wrong-doing either)

   So even when we get caught we don't want to pay 1 cent more for our sins than we want to.

   In Exodus 22:7 which says,

“If anyone gives a neighbor silver or goods for safekeeping and they are stolen from the neighbor’s house, the thief, if caught, must pay back double.

      This was what the law required.  It was not enough to pay back only what is owed to the person who is wronged, but to pay them back "double" so that not only is the item returned but hopefully also the relationship between the offender and the offended is repaired.   All too often, in business, all that is of concern is that some form of "restitution" is paid back.   When companies like Intel and Google arbitrate for less than what is lost, they cheapen the relationship they had with the individual.  Workers feel less like family and more like indentured servants which impacts the company's bottom line in the long run.   I have had several conversations with other employees who have voiced their disappointment at what was done and how the company went about handling the error in judgment and given that I am still writing about this 5 years later shows to what depth the "knife of injustice" sliced into the company soul.

   I don't expect the Intel execs to wake up any time soon and say "Wow!  We really screwed our workers back in 2005 we need to fix that damaged relationship!"   But maybe someone out there who is starting their own company will read this and say, "I am going to care more about my employees and treat them like family than slaves and work to keep my relationship to them on good terms!"