the philosophy professor asks who's really paying for this

GEBS: You've been using this site in your ethics seminar.

Professor: Every semester. It's better than the trolley problem. The trolley problem asks who dies. This asks who's born, to whom, and at what APR.

GEBS: What do your students take away from it?

Professor: That "is this wrong?" is the wrong question, because everyone already knows the answer — the site says so on its own homepage. The interesting question is who's allowed to ask it. A grad student typing on a library laptop asks it for tenure. A venture capitalist asks it for a slide deck. Neither of them is paying the subscription fee with their own future.

GEBS: A favorite section?

Professor: The one where nobody answers "but then what isn't" and the page just moves on to pricing. That's not a bug in the website. That's the thesis.