Consumer rationing

Rationing of consumer goods was more extensive in World War II than in any previous or subsequent experiment with wage and price controls. At its peak rationing covered slightly more than 20 percent of the consumer price index at prewar prices. Table 5.1, which gives a complete list of the rationed items and the duration of the programs, conveys something of the significance and ubiquity of rationing in World War II. The OPA clearly had a major job on its hands with items as diverse as sugar and shoes to ration.

Two major questions concern us here. First, was rationing required by the stabilization of prices in the face of excess demand or was it a by-product of other war-related changes in the economy? If it was required by the stabilization program, then we are likely to need rationing in a similar peacetime program. Second, what were the nature and origins of the difficulties encountered? If there were a substantial number of tough problems to be solved in the course of producing an equitable program, and if these difficulties were inherent in consumer rationing, then the need to ration must be counted as one of the major drawbacks of controls when used to suppress an inflation generated by an expansionary monetary policy.

The simplest motive for rationing was what might have been called the siege motive. This motive is easy to understand if you will imagine a besieged city cut off from all supplies.