Even universalistic first-come, first-served service imposes real costs on clients.

Evidence

Even the most ordinary queuing arrangements—those designed to provide service on a first-come, first-served basis in accordance with universalistic principles of client treatment-impose costs. 20 Queues that depend upon first-come, first-served as their organizing principle elicit client cooperation because of their apparent fairness, but they may ration service by forcing clients to wait. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 692

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to administrative-burden scholarship (Herd & Moynihan) showing procedural hurdles function as hidden rationing devices that screen out the least advantaged. — connects to: Waiting time is a cost of service extracted almost entirely from clients — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 657; First-come, first-served queues ration service toward those whose time is cheap.; Monetary costs imposed on clients ration access to street-level services — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 656

Broader Connections

• First-come, first-served queues ration service toward those whose time is cheap. #expands (0.85)
• Monetary costs imposed on clients ration access to street-level services #complicates (0.80) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 656