The point is, you pay more, you save life time. The government could have chosen to make it free so everyone can access these time saving measures, but our leaders did not, deeming it acceptable for further tranches of society to be publicly displayed.
Paying is an easy way to select for those who value it the most, which are the frequent fliers. If you’re a business traveler or otherwise someone who travels a lot, the price is small compared to the flights and the time saved is very large. That will be the inverse for those who need it least, the infrequent travelers.
Yes some people who travel infrequently will choose to pay for the faster line, but then they are also subsidizing the extra cost of staff to run the other systems.
The idea that this is meant to put tranches of society on display is ludicrous.
Knowing a number of people who have to travel a lot for work, I might even say that most of the poor shlubs in the precheck lines who have to travel monthly or more frequently are the real losers in the grand scheme. Traveling in flying sardine cans to make a living is no fun.
Or you can increase staffing.
> The idea that this is meant to put tranches of society on display is ludicrous.
It may or may not be meant to put it on display, but it shows it for what it is. People who can afford to pay to save time get prioritized through public infrastructure, and people that do not pay have to wait.
At my local airport, all security lanes except for one for precheck, are well staffed and move as fast as the passengers allow. The space is already used maximally, however lines are exceedingly long. Switching the precheck lane to regular would have almost no effect on wait times.
Queuing theory is rather complex.
Which would increase the cost. You could pay for that by charging everyone more, but many people on their annual trip don't think that the extra $10 on the ticket is worth the 20 minute saving. More importantly they'll choose the airport which is $10 cheaper as they have fewer agents so the peaks aren't smoothed.
Also, security screening is partly and can totally be paid by marginal income taxes, it does not need to come from each passenger.
Oh sure, that's great. How many have bought it?
Oh everyone on today's flight, it's such a good deal