From Chinese Press

Why people jump queues

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-25 08:25

Why don't Chinese people queue up properly before counters? For an answer, we have to see whether enough goods and services are available to fulfill everyone's needs, says an article in Oriental Morning Post. Excerpts:

Many people attribute the bad habit of jumping queues to the lack of education. A queue is necessary to distribute goods and services equitably and on a first-come, first-serve basis. But if the goods and services, some of which may be rare to get, are not enough to satisfy everyone's needs, people will keep on breaking queues and try to move ahead of others to get to the counters first.

Similarly, many visitors to the Shanghai Expo dumped their garbage near trashcans. Before blaming such people, we should find out whether there were enough trashcans for all the visitors to dump their garbage.

 

(China Daily 05/25/2010 page9)