Envy figures into it. But Earl Perry's sentence above "Repeat users
aren't taking anything away from [the rest of us]" is only true under the
current system. It would be easy to design a system where the permits
currently picked up as cancellations would go into the wait-list pool
instead. If NPS anticipated that a third of permit holders would cancel,
then they could hand out 50% more permits. One third of those cancel, and
you've got 100% use by people on the waiting list. The waiting list moves
50% faster. Easy. And much fairer.
The status quo favors people who've been down before, who have the
experience to put together a trip quickly, but there's no logical reason
the system has to work that way.
Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill@u.washington.edu
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