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Chris DeMuth Jr's avatar

Queuing is for socialists. I don't understand why anyone who is rational and self-seeking would ever wait in line for anything. I understand doing something because it is lucrative. I understand doing something because it is fun. But I cannot see the point in something that doesn't pay off in one way or some other. At the right clearing price, everyone should use the price system to get goods and services on time and in order of price. Hopefully, the pandemic will reveal the absurd wastefulness of congestion such that when people go back to their normalish lives, they will see that rush hours are 100% avoidable. When we were all heading to the same fields at harvest time, it made some sense to crowd the same roads in the same direction. But we ran out of that excuse a few centuries ago. Today, in service-based economies there are zero reasons to cram into the same lines at the same time.

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Joachim Klement's avatar

Is this irony? If you think that humans are inherently selfish then you have missed centuries of research on our intrinsic social behavior. The preference of fairness over individual gain is a big part of that starting with Adam Smith’s “On the Theory of Moral Sentiment”

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Chris DeMuth Jr's avatar

Maybe wrong but not intended as irony. I am all for fairness, but think it 100% fair to be able to buy one's way out of wasting time. Now largely solved with speed passes, I recall as a kid waiting in traffic jams caused by $0.25 toll booths wondering why they didn't have (voluntary) $5 lanes. It doesn't serve anyone's interest to force others to do something beneath the market value of their marginal time. Demanding wasteful sacrifice from other people is evil, but it is often done with the innuendo that it is a virtue.

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Michael Swinsburg's avatar

The concept of someone’s time being more valuable Than another is interesting. Let’s assume Everyone had the same life expectancy in one rich country Eg the USA so the same time on the planet. Then we have a queue for water from only one Pipe with enough time for all.

When does Someones time become more valuable? If they are paid more Eg doctor vs bricklayer? What if the doctor is a cosmetic surgeon shootjng Botox everyday and Bricklayer is a master building a much needed hospital? Does this change their time value? Your example is more about the ability to pay more to the Service owner of the queue Eg road toll. Should you Rather be bargaining with others in the queue to Value their time and find a price to jump ahead? Maybe you can get ahead maybe you can’t.

Not sure I see anyoneS time more valuable than mine or vice versa. Queue jumpers Must think that They are are more important. Not Sure why they think that. Time is limited for all of us. We only have one life. If every one understood their own human Potential then no one would allow anyone else to jump the queue as all would see themselves as just as valuable. What things can’t be priced? Teaching someOne a lesson to be patient and wait their turn. Get in line as we Say in Aussie. Priceless. Interesting question. Thanks for the blog J. Cheers Michael.

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