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By Steve
#897
Time is money, but for different individuals it has a different value. Bill Gates for example (or a busy manager) will lose hundreds of dollars in the doctor's waiting room or while he is standing in a long queue at the supermarket, while a student's time is much cheaper.

My idea is that you should be able to buy / sell your waiting time. If you're in a hurry and don't want to lose valuable time, you should be able to buy time in situations that would otherwise be time-consuming. Selling their time would also be an interesting source of income for people who are not so well off.

Of course, some (central) agency would probably have to coordinate this.

Reward: A certain amount of free bonus time at my disposal.
Last edited by Steve on Wed Dec 25, 2002 12:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
By duh
#1038
just slip the guy ahead of you a fiver and cut in ahead of him...no fuss no muss.
By labor halls
#1212
temp agencies..............

hiring your own employees.

I think this is the order of people taking this into consideration.
By qawi
#9166
there is already a system like this... it's called work.
By fishingbradman
#14793
Interesting idea. I am not sure if you are aware of this, but your idea already happens many ways. For example, when you call the customer support number for your bank or credit card they have you enter your account number. The computer determines the size of your account, and if your account generates a great deal of profit for the company, they move your call up in the waiting line.
Another example is going to the grocery store. The upscale stores have more checkout lanes and cashiers per customer, so in effect when you pay more for your loaf of bread, in a small way part of that higher price is payment for shorter lines.
By Gavin.Philips
#14807
Hmm, on one hand it could be very handy for many of us. On the other, there could be serious ethical issues. I had to wait for nine hours once in an emergency room as a kid, all the while writhing on the floor and screaming in pain, and that was without anyone paying to be accelerated. Poor people get screwed over in health care and other situations pretty badly as it is... =/
By amorriso
#14819
Years ago I read about people in Russia who stand in line for other people in exchange for money. Another way of doing it might be for the company to allow people to enter a shorter line in exchange for money. For example, you could have a special checkout line at the supermarket that you could enter in exchange for paying $1. It would be very short because very few people would be willing to pay the $1. So people would get fast service.
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