新高级阅读前（双语）62（1049）

PASSAGE SIXTY-ONE

Inequality-ism

1.We’ve considered several ways of paying to cut in line: hiring line standers, buying tickets from scalpers, or purchasing line-cutting privileges directly from, say, an airline or an amusement park. 

2.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).

3.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 appeal. 

4.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. 

5.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.

6.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.” 

7.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. 

8.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.

9.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. 

10.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. 

11.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. 

12.The disappearance of the queues in these places may seem an unusual concern, but these are not the only places that markets have entered.

第六十二篇

不平等主义

1.我们考虑过几种花钱插队的方式:雇佣站队的人，从黄牛那里买票，或者直接从航空公司或游乐园购买插队的特权。

2.这些交易都用市场道德(为更快的服务付出代价)取代了排队的道德(等待轮到你)。

3.市场和排队，付费和等待，是两种不同的分配方式，每一种都适用于不同的活动。“先到先得”的排队道德具有平等主义的吸引力。

4.他们告诉我们不要理会特权、权力和财大气粗的人。这个原则在操场和公交车站似乎是正确的。但排队的道德并非适用于所有场合。

5.如果我要出售我的房子，我没有义务接受第一个报价，仅仅因为它是第一个。卖房和等车是不同的活动，有不同的标准。

6.有时标准会改变，而且不清楚应该适用哪条原则。想想当你打电话给银行时，你听到的一遍又一遍地播放的录音信息:“你的电话将按照接到的顺序被接听。”

7.这对排队的道德是至关重要的。公司似乎在试图缓解我们对公平的不耐烦。但是不要把录音太当真。今天，有些人的电话会比其他人更快得到回复。

8.呼叫中心技术使公司能够“记录”来电，并为来自富裕地区的来电提供更快的服务。你可以称之为电话插队。

9.当然，市场和排队并不是分配资源的唯一方式。我们分发的物品有些是由于优点，有些是由于需要，还有一些是偶然的。

10.然而，市场取代排队和其他非市场方式分配商品的趋势在现代生活中如此普遍，以至于我们几乎不再注意到它。

11.令人惊讶的是，我们考虑过的大多数付费插队计划，在机场、游乐园、呼叫中心、医生办公室和国家公园，都是最近才出现的，在30年前是难以想象的。

12.这些地方排队的消失似乎是一个不同寻常的问题，但这些并不是市场进入的唯一地方。