Rationing

However, economists point out that high prices act to reduce waste of the scarce resource, while also providing incentive to produce more.

Despite the fact that rationing systems are sometimes necessary as the only viable option for societies facing severe consumer goods shortages, they are usually extremely unpopular with the general public, as they enforce limits on individual consumption.

According to FEMA standards, every person should have a minimum of 1 US quart (0.95 L) per day of water, and more for children, nursing mothers, and the ill.[6] Military sieges have often resulted in shortages of food and other essentials.

In Germany, suffering from the effects of the British blockade, a rationing system was introduced in 1914 and was steadily expanded over the following years as the situation worsened.

[13] Rationing on a scientific basis was pioneered by Elsie Widdowson and Robert McCance at the Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Cambridge.

They studied the differing effects from deficiencies of salt and of water and produced the first tables to compare the nutritional contents of foods before and after cooking.

Using 1938 food-production data, they fed themselves and other volunteers a limited diet, while simulating the strenuous wartime physical work Britons would likely have to perform.

This was followed by successive rationing schemes for meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, lard, milk, and canned and dried fruit.

[21] In May 1941, Woolton appealed to Americans to reduce consumption of certain foods (dairy, sugar canned salmon and meat) so more of those could go to the United Kingdom.

[22] The Office of Price Administration (OPA) warned Americans of potential gasoline, steel, aluminum and electricity shortages.

[23] It believed that with factories converting to military production and consuming many critical supplies, rationing would become necessary if the country entered the war.

[24] Typewriters, gasoline, bicycles, footwear, silk, nylon, fuel oil, stoves, meat, lard, shortening and cooking oils, cheese, butter, margarine, processed foods (canned, bottled, and frozen), dried fruits, canned milk, firewood and coal, jams, jellies, and fruit butters were rationed by November 1943.

[32] Similarly rationing was introduced across the Japanese empire, as commodities such as rice became scarce in territories, after the destruction of the transport infrastructure that once served colonies.

[citation needed] Civilian peacetime rationing of food has been employed after natural disasters, during contingencies, or after failed governmental economic policies regarding production or distribution, as well as due to extensive austerity programs implemented to cut or restrict public spending in countries where the rationed goods previously relied on government procurement or subsidies, as was the case in Israel.

[34] Some centralized planned economies introduced peacetime rationing systems due to food shortages in the postwar period.

At first, only staple foods such as cooking oil, sugar, and margarine were rationed, but it was later expanded, and eventually included furniture and footwear.

The United States introduced odd–even rationing for fuels during the crisis, which allowed only vehicles with even-numbered numberplates to fill up on gas one day and odd-numbered ones on another.

[37] Rationing in Cuba for basic goods was enacted in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had previously subsidised the island nation's economy.

Rationing started being phased out in the year 2000 at the end of the "special period", as Cuba had shifted to a more diversified and self-sustaining economy.

This 'liberated' system persisted even during Cuba's period of economic growth and relative prosperity during the early and mid 2010s and enjoyed considerable popularity among the island's citizens.

Cuba later re-introduced a classical limiting rationing system in 2019, following the imposition of strict sanctions on the island by US President Donald Trump, as well as the collapse of petroleum shipments from Venezuela, which was facing its own economic troubles at that time.

Cuba's president pitched the new system as significantly more lenient than the 1991–2000 "special period", though admitted that it would negatively affect consumption.

[48][49][50][51] According to The Hindu, "President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has called in the army to manage the crisis by rationing the supply of various essential goods.

Censorship, libraries and museums can function to limit, moderate and share out approved cultural goods, experiences and exposures to the general public.

Individuals wanting or needing to emit at a level above that permitted by their initial allocation would be able to engage in emissions trading and purchase additional credits.

[60][61] The rations were based on gender, income, wealth and social status, with unemployed people and welfare recipients not being allowed to buy any alcohol at all.

[citation needed] People often sought to circumvent the rationing by making frequent use of friends or even strangers' booklets, for example by rewarding a young woman with a dinner out in return for the other party consuming most or all of the alcohol incurring the stamps.

Ration stamps were widely used during World War II by both sides after hostilities caused interruption to the normal supply of goods.

A ration card allows households to purchase highly subsidised food grain, sugar and kerosene from their local Public distribution system (PDS) shop.

Government funds provided to poverty stricken individuals by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are often referred to colloquially as "food stamps".