First-come, first-served queues ration service toward those whose time is cheap.
Evidence
Overt expressions of demand for services tend to be more responsive to changes in the perceived availability of services than in changes in the underlying conditions that are commonly supposed to affect demand. In other words, perceived availability of service “pulls” demand, not the other way around. To illustrate: when cities introduce “g11” programs providing for central reception of public safety telepbone calls, an easily memorized telephone number and publicity to instruct the public in its use, they discover an untapped reserve of requests for public safety assistance. Indeed, New York City at one point undertook a public campaign to urge people to use the gIl system less because the increased demand outstripped the city’s ability to respond. When Boston introduced its Little City Halls program, providing a municipal presence in the neighborhoods, requests for city services through complaints increased by a third. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 292 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
- XREF: connects to: Service availability creates demand rather than merely satisfying it — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 292; Waiting costs fall on clients, not workers, to protect worker efficiency
Broader Connections
- Waiting costs fall on clients, not workers, to protect worker efficiency
#complicates(0.80) - Service availability creates demand rather than merely satisfying it
#expands(0.75) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 292