genius ideas

New App Splits the Bill So White Men Pay Their Fair Share (More)

Check please!
Check please! Photo: Stewart Cohen/Getty Images

Next time your stingy friend takes out a notepad and paper to calculate exactly how much everybody owes at dinner, perhaps consider downloading EquiTable instead. The new app promises to split the bill equitably not equally, so that everyone pays what they should based on the wage gap.

Photo: Cultivated Wit/YouTube

Users program their race and gender into the app, then tell it how much the bill is and which of their EquiTable friends they dined with. An algorithm determines how much each user owes based on “affirmative fractions.” (The gender option even offers a spectrum, so you can be as male or female as you feel that day.) And if you’re not dining with a diverse group of friends? The app charges you a $5 surcharge that goes to one of your minority friends. As the creator jokes, “Equitable: Reparations one bill at a time.”

Unfortunately, the app isn’t available for download just yet; until then, avoid all dinners with white men, just to be safe.

New App Splits the Bill So White Men Pay More