Friday, March 04, 2011

Canadian University Student Ethics 2011: "Why wouldn't you, right?"

Laundry in the river in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.                               Image via Wikipedia
Here's the set-up to this story.
All students pay for laundry by swiping their student card at the room's payment machine, then punching in the number of the laundry machine they used.
But some students discovered if they told the payment machine they used one specific machine, you wouldn't get billed due to a computer glitch. Soon, every student who knew about the trick only ever "used" that machine, but were washing clothes in whatever machine was available.  CBC.
"As a student you just gotta kind of go for the cheapest route. And if that comes down to kind of screwing the laundry machine for free laundry machine services … then of course why wouldn't you, right?"
Why wouldn't you indeed. Like, maybe because it's a form of theft involving dishonesty? (It is one thing to use a machine that erroneously does not charge you. It is another thing to use another machine and dishonestly enter in the other machine code to avoid payment.)

"It was fun, it was just cheap," said James Salmon, a second-year student who used "the trick" every week.

Not a single Carleton student among the thousands who used "the trick" displayed the honesty or "love your neighbour" ethic that is a hallmark of practiced Christianity -- not a single one.

"Love your neighbor" is an expansive commandment; it applies not only to the person standing in front of you, but to the unseen person who has provided a service, or produced a song or movie, to corporations, and to owners of machines that provide a service or dispense a product.

"Love your neighbor" - easy to agree to; difficult to live out in practice.

Update: Meanwhile, in Japan...
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's not a "trick", it's theft. Plain and simple.

"While some students are sad a fun trick that saved them a few bucks is gone, others are furious with the university's decision to nail them with an unforeseen fee."

Ah the righteous anger of the entitled.

john said...

Hey Pal! Dont' blame me! I'm just a blob of sentient protoplasm that developed through a series of random chemical interations in primordial ooze. If I don't do what's ggod for ME my offspring will lose the genetic race.

BallBounces said...

Anon - good catch.

BallBounces said...

John - Darwinism - the universal acid.

"... nothing intellectually compelling or challenging.. bald assertions coupled to superstition... woefully pathetic"