I feel I missed some logical step in-between "corruptive power of money" and the elevator/stairway railing/banister thing.
> People will simply offer to buy you out, and that's not limited to founders and creatives.
A less-obvious failure case would be bankrupcy court, where all sorts of ethical promises and even explicit contracts may be voided in pursuit of recovering a buck for creditors.
It was supposed to be a provocative example for a situation that makes it very hard for someone selling something, more specifically, something immaterial, to judge what is an appropriate price for it.
Of course nobody asks people they want to get into a contract to lick an escalator handway. That was the word I was looking for, I think.
The show ran on TV when I was young, I didn't even watch it.