What is unethical as fuck, but is extremely common practice in the business world?

Honestly, the absolute worst thing that everyone just accepts as normal is the way companies treat their vendors and smaller partners. I've seen it way too many times where a big firm drags their feet on payments for months, knowing full well that a smaller shop or a freelancer is counting on that cash to keep their lights on. They use that leverage to basically squeeze you dry or force you to accept a lower payout, acting like it’s just "standard payment terms" when in reality it’s just bullying.

Another thing that really grinds my gears is how companies handle "trial periods" or unpaid test projects. They’ll ask for a full-blown proposal or a sample of work that’s basically a finished product, and then just ghost you after they get what they need. It’s essentially free labor disguised as a vetting process. They get the ideas or the output they wanted without ever having to pay a dime, and there's basically zero accountability for it in the corporate world.

Then there's the whole culture of "planned obsolescence" that we all just roll with. You buy something, it works perfectly for a year or two, and then right after the warranty expires, some tiny part breaks that costs almost as much as the whole item to replace. It’s so wasteful and honestly just greedy, but since everyone does it, nobody bats an eye. We just end up tossing stuff out and buying new ones, which is exactly how they want it.