Primary Sources: The WWII Ration Book
| Tue May. 13, 2008 3:29 PM PDT
Our current issue on energy includes a timeline of energy milestones from 1748 to the present. In researching the tale of our energy use, I came across this website, an archival treasure trove of rationing during World War II. Most basic goods were rationed during the war, and the government and media launched a propaganda campaign to rally Americans to this patriotic cause. Rationed items included tires, cars, bicycles, gasoline, fuel oil and kerosene, solid fuels, stoves, rubber footwear, shoes, sugar, coffee, processed foods, meats, canned fish, cheese, canned milk, fats, and typewriters.
Most of us have made no such sacrifices for the war in Iraq, but we may have to for other reasons: Our energy future will be defined by limited supply of once-unlimited commodities, and already some cities here in the Bay Area are preparing to ration water due to low reserves. As alien as the idea seems, we might do well to revisit those patriotic sacrifices after all.
—Casey Miner
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Comments
Casey Miner is NOT trying to suggest we have rationing to support the Iraq war, but rather rationing due to environmental constraints. So please try to stay on topic here, folks. And I already have water rationing? I can only water my lawn on odd days of the week.
Anne... I concur. No government has been totally without guilt and worthy of implicit trust. That is why government should be as our Founding Fathers designed, minimized vs. enlarged. Control should be de-centralized in the hands of the states.
A primary reason many younger people believe today's government is so untrustworthy is that they have not experienced previous administrations or in lieu of that experience, studied history - and not just the "what year was the War of 1812?" brand of history.
Each administration has used subterfuge when deemed "necessary." "Back in the day" we even supported spying, insurgencies and political assassinations. This was done by both Democratic and Republican administrations when seen as through their eyes as "what's best for the country."
While this is by no means a justification, world politics and governmental actions can be difficult to understand. However, this country has in its brief history freed millions of repressed people, fed millions of starving people, found and delivered cures that saved millions more, and provided aid without charge at every natural disaster?we are not perfect, but we stand as place of hope and desire. Just ask the millions that are trying to immigrate here.
Casey Miner is NOT trying to suggest we have rationing to support the Iraq war, but rather rationing due to environmental constraints. So please try to stay on topic here, folks. And I already have water rationing? I can only water my lawn on odd days of the week.
Anne... I concur. No government has been totally without guilt and worthy of implicit trust. That is why government should be as our Founding Fathers designed, minimized vs. enlarged. Control should be de-centralized in the hands of the states.
A primary reason many younger people believe today's government is so untrustworthy is that they have not experienced previous administrations or in lieu of that experience, studied history - and not just the "what year was the War of 1812?" brand of history.
Each administration has used subterfuge when deemed "necessary." "Back in the day" we even supported spying, insurgencies and political assassinations. This was done by both Democratic and Republican administrations when seen as through their eyes as "what's best for the country."
While this is by no means a justification, world politics and governmental actions can be difficult to understand. However, this country has in its brief history freed millions of repressed people, fed millions of starving people, found and delivered cures that saved millions more, and provided aid without charge at every natural disaster?we are not perfect, but we stand as place of hope and desire. Just ask the millions that are trying to immigrate here.
REALLY NOW!!!!!!!!!--BROUGHT TO YOU BY ALL THE IDIOTS (WITH ALL THEIR RAPIST PIGS AND THOSE OTHER LOSERS WHO DO UNDERSTAND THAT ALL OUR PROBLEMS ARE THE PRODUCT OF THE POOR AND THE DOPERS).
Like it was some BIG BLACK GUY who killed the Electric Car (and the Maglev Wind Turbines and the Solar Industry incentives).
I think you have to be big, dumb and stink...
On the one hand, the Aviation Industry used 19.6 BILLION gallons of aviation fuel, in 2006, while, on the other hand, "Boeing Successful Hydrogen Engine Test Shows Future of Aviation."
"The wunderengine--developed by the Ford Motor Company--went for three days under the simulated conditions of a 65,000-feet flight, which is definately better than a Taurus and apparently exceeded their expectations on fuel economy."
In other words, "we've got Hydrogen Airplanes," we've got Electric Cars, we've got unlimited offshore wind potential..., BUT SOMEHOW NOBODY EVER THOUGHT TO USE PERMAMENT MAGNETS FOR A FRICTIONLESS WIND TURBINE (except the Chinese...???).
Perhaps I'm not saying it right...; WHY SPEND BILLIONS ON NUCLEAR POWER WHEN WE CAN HARVEST UNLIMITED AND VIRTUALLY FREE ENERGY??????????
I remember my mother shopping with ration books. Also, I remember the despicable Blackmarketeers [alias "Free Marketeers"]
But rationing was not just to insure a fair distribution of limited goods...it also kept scarcities from pushing prices over the moon...and that's how FDR handled war inflation...While the Truman Commission actively prosecuted war-time profiteering...And Congress kept an eye on "excess profits"...Can you imagine what would happen in Iraq if Halliburton were indicted for profiteering?
The Bush War is a crime!
I do wonder what sort of rationing you are talking about.
I landed in New York on the 4th January 1944. Then on to Texas.
Now I heard stories of your privations but I thought I had landed in the land of plenty and abundance. Went to restaurants, ate with gusto, Bought clothes off the peg such as I hadn't seen in years. Nobody asked me for a ration card.
Drove in cars that filled up without the use of coupons.
Hanged if I know what rationing you are on about.
As for rationing because of this debacle in the Middle East. Forget it, y'all are about to be rationed by being unable to afford what you want.
What you spend on fighting other people, can't be spent looking after your own.
Just in case, if interested:
the story of the other, the
German rationing side is told by:
Adam A Tooze: Wages of Destruction, 2006; Allen Lane /Penguin, UK.
Philosophically speaking: it tells how to bring about misery, destruction with the utmost effort by manpower (including the sacrifice of life) as well as the use of
material resources.
Fascinating to actually see these and read the directions/restrictions on them. I am nostalgic for a time when our government was actually trustworthy enough to enact such a program fairly... but cynical enough to suspect that never existed.
Casey Miner is NOT trying to suggest we have rationing to support the Iraq war, but rather rationing due to environmental constraints. So please try to stay on topic here, folks. And I already have water rationing I can only water my lawn on odd days of the week.
Anne... I concur. No government has been totally without guilt and worthy of implicit trust. That is why government should be as our Founding Fathers designed, minimized vs. enlarged. Control should be de-centralized in the hands of the states.
A primary reason many younger people believe today's government is so untrustworthy is that they have not experienced previous administrations or in lieu of that experience, studied history - and not just the "what year was the War of 1812?" brand of history.
Each administration has used subterfuge when deemed "necessary." "Back in the day" we even supported spying, insurgencies and political assassinations. This was done by both Democratic and Republican administrations when seen as through their eyes as "what's best for the country."
While this is by no means a justification, world politics and governmental actions can be difficult to understand. However, this country has in its brief history freed millions of repressed people, fed millions of starving people, found and delivered cures that saved millions more, and provided aid without charge at every natural disaster we are not perfect, but we stand as place of hope and desire. Just ask the millions that are trying to immigrate here.
"...this country has in its brief history freed millions of repressed people..."
Yet nowadays the US Supreme Court has decided a person can be sentenced for crimes he/she has been acquitted of (United States v. Watts). Who can even imagine such a thing (NOT ME!!!!!!!!!). THE DIRTY, DIRTY BASTARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"... fed millions of starving people ..."
Yet nowadays we've drastically raised the price of corn by going ethanol (though, contrary to what the Politicians were spewing, this actually causes more green houses gaes and pollution). Then there's those factory fishing boats... Hell, we're responsible for most of the global warming--what about the decline of the salmon, ect., ect., ect..., and the warming oceans...
"... found and delivered cures that saved millions more ..."
Yet here we are in a cancer epidemic... While the Drug Makers make out like bandits... This is not social science, this is murder...
Yes, we help out with aid--except what about that earth quake in Pakistan a while back... And they're our buddies now--seems to me we really let them down (heard a lot of stories). Shoot, we can't even handle our own natural disasters... What about that Quackenbush Insurance Company scandal... They paid his kids football camp loads, but they never (even after the scandal broke) paid out what was due...
Seems to me..., we're not the Shining Light of Freedom anymore, rather the opposite...
