I generally
enjoy reading Seth Godin’s blog. Though
a marketing maven, he has a lot to say about quality, treating people right,
and other ways to do well and still not do evil. But his latest post struck me as way off the
mark. Here are some of its key points: (Since I’m annoyed with him, I’m not going to tell you
more about him, but he’s easy to find.)
Getting smart about the time tax.
If you want to go to Shakespeare in the Park in New
York, you need to really want to go.
That's because it's free. Well, mostly free. They use
a time-honored tradition to be sure that the tickets are allocated to people
who truly want them: they tax the interested by having them wait on line, for
hours sometimes.
It seems egalitarian, but it's actually regressive, because it doesn't
take into account the fact that different people value their time differently.
People with time to spare are far more likely to be rewarded.
We don't need to make people wait in line for anything if we don't want
to. Why not have the most eager theater goers trade the three hours they'd
spend in line in exchange for tutoring some worthwhile kid instead? Instead of
wasting all that time, we could see tens of thousands of people trading the
lost time for a ticket and a chance to do something useful. (Money is just one
way to adjudicate the time tax problem, but there are plenty of other resources
people can trade to get to the head of the line).
This logic of scarcity can be applied to countless situations. First-come, first-served is non-digital,
unfair and expensive. And yet we still use it all the time, in just
about everyone situation where there is scarcity.
As a young man, I waited in those lines many times. (Once I gave up and went to an expensive
movie with my date instead – a movie that wound up earning me a $2500
scholarship shortly afterward, but that’s a different story.) The wait was usually worth it, especially
when spent in the company of friends, and we got plenty of vitamin D for our
time as well.
Aside from my own reminiscences, and my gratitude that I had a better chance at a ticket as a high school student than did a broker who couldn’t leave the stock exchange until after four, I still see an enormous amount wrong with Godin’s view.
First of all, anyone who thinks that we actually use first-come in
scarce situations has never watched a sports event, gotten an invitation to a
fundraiser with a major performer or public figure, or tried to buy an IPO of a
hot stock. Do you think that Spike Lee waits in line for Knicks tickets, that
the plasterer on Martha’s Vineyard who didn’t get to see Carol King sing on behalf
of the Democratic Party at Martha’s Vineyard for $1500 just didn’t reach
Paypal in time, or that your broker slotted you in line ahead of the California
pension plan because you put in for Facebook stock minutes ahead of them?
In fact there are relatively few times in life when the ability to take time,
and the patience to do so, will get you the scarce item. (And many of those apply to relative equals:
students, say, lining up to get into their first course choice.)
Then Godin dazzles us with jargon: waiting in line is “regressive, because
it doesn’t take into account the fact that different people value their time
differently.” Waiting on line is a
“tax.” And first-come first served is
“non-digital.” I thought regressive meant
the poor paid relatively more than the rich, as in sales taxes, or absolutely more, as in the combination of Social Security and payroll tax as against capital gains. Waiting would then be progressive: as a high
school student without a job, I paid zero to wait on line, while the attorney
paid hundreds of dollars. (That was back
in the day, of course. Today he could be
on his phone at his full billable rate, but that would kill Godin’s whole argument.) Nor, despite the old saw, is time money. (Remember Jack Benny and the hold-up
man? “Your money or your life.” “I’m thinking.”) All of us have a finite amount of time, while some of us have practically unlimited money. I’m not sure what Godin
means by non-digital, except maybe that the Internet has replaced what the
Germans call sitzfleisch (ability to stick it out) with internet capacity. But as far as I know, people are still analog
creatures, and will be until the Singularity.
Godin is clearly of the mindset that anything can be “monetized.” Even his ludicrous effort to show “money is
just one way” to deal with the problem proves that. The hedge fund manager who can’t afford to
give up three hours on line would want to, or be qualified to do social service
instead? How much money would have to be
spent to find him the “worthwhile kid” to tutor? Would the kid’s worth be predicated on his
future earning power?
No, Mr. Godin, first-come first served isn’t unfair, or it is only in
the sense that life is unfair. Some of
us have better looks than others, some are taller, some thinner, some smarter,
some better-connected. Every one of
those variations can make unfair differences in life’s opportunities. Having money is one of the easiest ways to tip
the scales in your favor in almost every area of life. I say hooray for those few places where
patience counts for more than payment, and free time is actually worth
something to its owner.
