Fuel rationing?

I was at the funeral for a 90 year old neighbor on Friday, and pretty much had the same thought looking up at the water stains in church ceiling and thinking how much that old building had seen.

Certainly WWII generation was not perfect -- there were some who were profitering; and some who worked the ration system not really for profit but did do things others had given up (one of my college professors was a retired state Commissioner of Agriculture, and told of how as a teen they'd use their farm gas coupons to go to the beach fifty miles away).

But there was more of a roll up our sleeves and get it done attitude.

Today you try stuff, it seems you run into more opposition then support. Some good stuff that ends up going too far like some of the zoning and safety rules; Lawyers and "non-profit activists" who make a career out of harassing people (take your pic -- schools, special ed, nuclear power, wind power, cell phone towers, etc, etc...).

At least the market, with many individuals making choices, is less impacted by these nimrods of negativism. A single "plan" is far easier for them to attack and tear down, and we accomplish nothing.

No politics involved with my answer.

True rationing rarely works. People were prepared to make sacrifices during the War; that is simply not the case today. Rationing just leads to a black market; it's better to let the prices rise in an open market rather than make a few crooks rich in a black market economy.

Of course, for people who lived on farms, on farm butchering meant meat coupons weren't important. If you had sorghum or honey or maple syrup then sugar coupons weren't so important. Farmers generally could trade either food or coupons to get what they needed (not counting machinery).

Farmers had priority for fuel. What would be the point in letting wheat rot in the fields to save fuel?

Now days, I'm sure the geniuses that created the mortgage mess would quickly devote themselves to figuring out how to make a fortune out of gaming the rationing system. They have no sense of guilt or responsibility.