“Pay enough, and you can jump to the front of the queue for almost anything.” Concierge Nation: Welcome to White-Glove America. “Exclusivity — even if it comes at the cost of social cohesion — is the business model.”
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Spencer Ackerman: "The future is subscription-tiered citizenship, where your access to resources and the freedoms they provide is throttled and woe to those who can't afford them."
See also Our Unpleasant Privatized Reality for more reading on this, including Hamilton Nolan's Everyone Into The Grinder and Tom Junod's classic The Water-Park Scandal and Two Americas in the Raw: Are We a Nation of Line-Cutters, or Are We the Line?
I became aware of this about 10-15 years ago when Six Flags Great America started offering the "Flash Pass" to skip the lines. It was great. Very quickly I realized the park is never going to be the same. I am always going to want the pass, and so will everyone else. Therefor they have to continue to raise the price of the pass so not everyone can afford it, otherwise the system wouldn't work. It's a genius way to get more money from people who can afford it but a terrible experience for everyone who doesn't want to or can't pay the extra for the pass.
The absolute worst was when we bought the platinum pass (or whatever it's called) that lets you ride a ride twice in a row. Other riders would see you skip the line with the pass, then after the ride was over you wouldn't get up, you could just sit there and ride it again. Some poor kid who waited an HOUR to take his turn would be totally confused that you didn't have to let him have his turn. It was actually embarrassing. We never bought that pass again.
The wildest experience I ever had on this front was during a family trip to NYC in 2016. I was only there for a four day weekend, I had my 10 year old and her friend with me, and we wanted to see the Empire State Building, and it was around $20 to get a ticket that day but you couldn't enter for several hours or predict how long it would take. We had other plans for the evening and then I noticed a $150 option per person that was timed to sunset so we went with the deluxe option (I'd never been inside the ESB and figured it would be worth the splurge).
What we experienced was insane. It was late May and hot in NYC and we saw throngs of people sweltering in an endless queue. But the QR code on my phone got us special wristbands and through the lobby immediately to a waiting elevator that was held for us. Being last in meant we were also first out at the top.
Everyone had to walk into another endless series of queues, while we were told to take the turbo lane due to our wristbands. We jogged past hundreds of people, and at the end were allowed into the best possible viewing area.
From the lobby to standing on top of the building took us maybe ten minutes, and we got to spend another 45min watching the sunset and taking photos of the city in a glorious magic hour light. I googled it afterwards to learn it's a 3-4hr trip if you go the cheap route.
Using that upsold speedrun option totally soured me on the entire business of it. It immediately reminded me of the first time I flew first class and the ticket granted me entry into an upscale airline lounge and I was livid that rich people had a calm, quiet place while everyone else had to suffer yelling people and CNN screens blaring in the concourse. Every airline executive lounge should instead be the blueprint for the whole airport! And I already know it's possible, as Vancouver International airport (not on the US-side) is much like this, an incredible calm but luxurious place to fly out of if you're not headed to the US from YVR.
My toddler daughter and I were once sitting in the first row of coach and she asked me, “What's on the other side of that curtain, Dad?” “I hope you get there some day, sweetie,” I thought
Funny - just before I got to your last sentence, I was thinking, "Huh - not sure what he's talking about because I find YVR (pretty much the only major airport I have experience with) to actually be pretty damn nice flying as a plebe."
"A whopping 21mn Americans now pay homeowners association fees, which include things like security and member-only amenities."
I'm no fan of homeowners associations usually, but they're not all like private clubs with fancy amenities. Some of them provide basic services for areas that are not incorporated into cities yet. Some of them are set up to protect shared resources for higher-density developments like condos with shared walls and roofs, etc. I'm not sure it's fair to lump them all into "Concierge Nation"
This is why I dread ever going to Disney World or Disneyland. The "fast passes" to everything are quickly becoming the normal passes.
First thing I thought of when I read this: My kids and I standing in line at Disney, dripping with sweat, watching families who had upgraded to the Fast Pass whizzing by and completely avoiding the queue. It was an early lesson for my kids in socioeconomic divides and the construction of the stratified guest experience.
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