Line Cutting

When I was a kid, cutting in line was something that was bad. You saw someone slip ahead of you in line, and you pointed. "Hey! No cutting!"

Now it has been institutionalized.

I applied to get my passport renewed this week. It costs $67, and they estimate it will take 3 1/2 months. But if you pay a $60 additional fee, you get "expedited service", and your passport back in three weeks.

Line cutting. Why does everyone else have to wait 3 1/2 months? Because the line cutters get addressed first.

At Universal Studios, if you want to park in the parking lot closest to the park, you pay extra. Every one needs to park a little further away.

Inside the park, you can pay an additional fee on top of your ticket, and literally cut the line. Don't want to wait on the Jurassic Park line? No worries. Flash your badge, and you move right to the front.

When did this become so common? And it's easy to see where it is going, too.

No longer will you have to slip the maitre d' money to get a good table at a restaurant. Soon it will be built into the price.

Movies, too. You've bought your ticket online, but you don't want to get to the theater and find that you still have to wait on a long line to get into the theater. So you'll pay an additional fee, to be a member of the small group that is allowed into the theater first, to get the best seats.

You know that's coming, someday, not too far away.

The sad thing is this: if places let people cut in line, the people being inconvenienced are the ones who don't cut in line. They are the ones who wait a little longer, walk a little further, sweat out their passport getting there a little more.

They are the ones who should benefit, in some way, from the fees the others are paying. They should be paying lower ticket prices, lower fees.

If someone is cutting in front of me in line, I want to be paid for it.

But nope. It's become everyday and accepted. If you don't want to pay more -- straight into the pockets of the place you are going -- you get to watch as others get in first, get better service, get quicker service.

Bribery is now the norm.

Any other examples you can think of?