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Maybe I should charge you per word

Don't look now but the future, increasingly, is priced a la carte.

By Robert Trigaux, Times Business Editor
Published August 20, 2007

Don't look now but the future, increasingly, is priced a la carte.

The hoi polloi can still get a basic product or service at one price. But if you have the bucks and inclination, there are more opportunities than ever to pay extra for a little more speed, a little more comfort or a little more learning.

Put a different way, government and businesses are only too willing to charge more to folks willing to pay up for added convenience and, in general, a chance to get ahead in life's line.

Let's be clear. Folks have long had plenty of economic choices. A higher-priced sports car can blaze by the cheaper minivan. The Ritz beats Motel 6. Harvard trumps the community college.

But this is different. More common things we all use are cropping up with variable price tags. These examples struck me.

Traffic management: On I-95 between Fort Lauderdale and downtown Miami, tolls charged to drivers will vary according to traffic density in the high-occupancy lanes in the center median of the interstate.

Light traffic? Low toll. Vehicles thick as Miami humidity? High toll. Traffic volumes reportedly would be monitored to guarantee a 50-mph journey. Those unable to pay extra get to crawl along in the heavier traffic lanes.

Airline seats: Sure, we have major price differences in first class, business class and coach seats. But some airlines are taking a la carte pricing right down to individual rows and seats in coach.

For passengers anxious to avoid those nasty middle seats, for example, AirTran charges $15 to reserve an exit row seat and $5 for a window or aisle seat. The airline points out the fee only applies to discounted fare holders..

United's Economy Plus, which sells seats with a few inches more in legroom, charges $14 or more per one-way trip. The airline says it's popular.

(Maybe airlines should also trim more legroom and offer price breaks. But that might be against the Geneva Conventions for humanitarian treatment.)

College degrees: An Ivy League school charges more for a college degree than USF. But the same school charging different prices for different undergraduate degrees? As reported this month in the New York Times, growing numbers of cash-strapped universities are selling some degrees at a premium and others at a relative bargain.

Upperclassmen majoring at the business school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison must pay $500 more each semester than their peers pursuing other majors. In a price move sure to get some snickers in newsrooms, Arizona State University charges $250 more per semester above the basic $2,411 tuition for in-state upperclassmen in, of all things, the journalism school.

Urban congestion: In a first in the United States, Manhattan has embraced the surcharge bug. Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to charge drivers $8 and trucks $21 to enter the city's busiest district during peak hours.

Advocates call it "congestion pricing" but most New Yawkahs prefer the term "highway robbery" - at least when they're in polite company.

How far will it all go? In this all-you-can-eat-buffet country, too much a la carte pricing may prove hard to digest and harder on the wallet.

Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8405.

[Last modified August 17, 2007, 21:47:27]