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

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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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• Christian Ethics Lectures (christcollegeblog.com)