Communist much?
Um.... hell no. Fairness, yes.
On average, you should be in just as many fast lines as slow lines. The fact that you almost always perceive you are in the slower line is an indication of your ungratefulness when you are actually in the faster line.
You are assuming it is a natural distribution and that I don't have bad luck. Not sure either is true. The other thing is it has nothing to do with selfishness... I think it is just as unfair when I DO get a fast line, it screws everyone else.
It's the selfish human nature that wants to be first preventing the single line design. Consider road construction. When the interstate gets pinched down to a single lane, the traffic line will move faster for everyone the further from the bottleneck everyone gets into a single line. But what happens? People in the back race ahead in the soon to be closed open lane, trying to break in the line, trying to be first, trying to minimize their wait at the expense of everyone's wait. This slows the line down for everyone.
It is not the same as that at all. In the store/service case it is a single queue but would have multiple customer service reps at the other side. I don't see how this is a reasonable comparison. Traffic is totally different- you can generally change lanes and are not "cutting in line" because it really isn't a line but a path. But since you mention it... In traffic, I will *ALWAYS* get into whatever lane is closing and merge when there is no road left (the "merge point"). Precisely because the majority of people are trying to force themselves into the non-closing lane way before it happens and at random AND allowing alternate merging at the merge point, making the non-closing lane crazy slow and unfair. Slow speed merging should be done only at the merge point, and should be alternating. High speed merging should be done as soon as reasonably possible (but what fraction is high speed anymore.... super rare).
Many shorter lines seem better than one long line to consumers. And then there's the matter of choice in a democratic society. Choose your own line and your own destiny, or have no choice and be herded into a single, socialistic line? A few places do the socialist thing; Old Navy, Barnes & Noble, etc.
I wouldn't categorize this as a socialist vs. democratic thing. But all I know is that *I* would much rather not have to pick a lane and then get frustrated at the speed and not have a good feeling for when I will be served. With a single line system, I don't have to decide anything, I know it will be fair to everyone, and I can much better predict how long it will take.
I think the only real reason multi-line systems exist is simply that of space/layout. Single line systems, especially with large carts and such being pushed around, are not as "compact."