Originally Posted by AisleSitter
I believe people are missing the point. There are two areas: the airline ticket-checking area, and the security checkpoint. Think of them as two hoops you have to jump through.
First, you jump through the airline ticket-checking hoop. Here, they have 2 lines: wealth and proletariat. This is controlled by the airlines.
Next, you have the security checkpoint. Here, there is 1 line, that gets split up equally among the X number of screeners running simultaneously. This is controlled by the TSA, which is the US Government. Anyone who presents him/herself at the checkpoint is treated equally.
Once someone clears the first hoop, and are at the front, they have equal access to ALL of the checkpoint screeners.
I think you're confused, AisleSitter. It is not true that all security checkpoints have one line. Some security checkpoints at some airports do indeed have wealth and proletariat lines. As DecomposingScreener has already discussed, there are wealth and proletariat lines at his checkpoint.
This is in addition to the separated lines at the ticketing area.