We’ve considered several ways of paying to cut in
line: hiring line standers, buying tickets from scalpers (票販子), or purchasing line-cutting privileges directly
from, say, an airline or an amusement park. Each of these deals replaces the
morals of the queue (waiting your turn) with the morals of the market (paying a
price for faster service).
Markets and queues — paying and waiting — are two
different ways of allocating things, and each is appropriate to different
activities. The morals of the queue, “First come, first served, have an
egalitarian (平等主義的) appeal. They tell us to ignore privilege,
power, and deep pockets.
The principle seems right on playgrounds and at bus
stops. But the morals of the queue do not govern all occasions. If I put my
house up for sale, I have no duty to accept the first offer that comes along,
simply because it’s the first. Selling my house and waiting for a bus are
different activities, properly governed by different standards.
Sometimes standards change, and it is unclear which
principle should apply. Think of the recorded message you hear, played over and
over, as you wait on hold when calling your bank: “Your call will be answered
in the order in which it was received.” This is essential for the morals of the
queue. It’s as if the company is trying to ease our impatience with fairness.
But don’t take the recorded message too seriously.
Today, some people’s calls are answered faster than others. Call center
technology enables companies to “score” incoming calls and to give faster
service to those that come from rich places. You might call this telephonic
queue jumping.
Of course, markets and queues are not the only ways of
allocating things. Some goods we distribute by merit, others by need, still
others by chance. However, the tendency of markets to replace queues, and other
non-market ways of allocating goods is so common in modern life that we
scarcely notice it anymore. It is striking that most of the paid queue-jumping
schemes we’ve considered — at airports and amusement parks, in call centers,
doctors’ offices, and national parks — are recent developments, scarcely
imaginable three decades ago. The disappearance of the queues in these places
may seem an unusual concern, but these are not the only places that markets
have entered.
1.63.According to the author, which of the following
seems governed by the principle “First come, first served”?
A. Flying with an airline B. Buying
houses
C. Taking buses D.
Visiting amusement parks
2.64.The example of the recorded message in Paragraphs
4 and 5 shows ______.
A. the necessity of patience in queuing
B. the advantage of modern technology
C. the uncertainty of allocation principle
D. the fairness of telephonic services
3.65.The passage is meant to ______.
A. discuss the morals of allocating things
B. justify paying for faster services
C. analyze the reason for standing in line
D. criticize the behavior of queue jumping
