You are an ordinary civilian trapped on a ferry rigged with explosives. On the other ferry are convicts. Each boat holds the detonator to the other. If your boat presses the button before midnight, you and your loved ones survive; if no one acts, both boats explode.

Classical qualification criteria prioritize patients based on objective medical metrics: highest likelihood of successful outcome, longest predicted survival, fewest comorbidities, and sometimes avoidance of "self-inflicted" conditions (e.g., excluding active substance users or non-adherent patients). Progressive qualification criteria incorporate broader social/ethical factors: prioritizing historically marginalized groups with systemic barriers to care, individuals with dependents or community leadership roles, or those whose loss would cause disproportionate societal harm. This shifts from pure prognosis/utility toward equity, reparative justice, and social impact.

"Net zero" refers to a state where greenhouse gas emissions produced are balanced by removals from the atmosphere, theoretically allowing continued industrial emissions if they are offset by methods like carbon capture, reforestation, or carbon trading. This narrative has become the dominant global climate strategy, adopted by corporations and governments to set distant targets (e.g., "Net Zero by 2050") that rely heavily on future technological solutions rather than immediate, absolute reductions in fossil fuel use.

Under Keynesian economics, states increase government spending (even up to the point of deficits), cut taxes, and intervene in markets to stimulate aggregate demand and stabilize the economy. Under Hayekian economics, there is minimal state intervention, reduced regulation, and governments typically allow markets to self-correct through price and wage adjustments.