Saturday, January 27, 2018

Bitish Rationing in WW2, the rest of the story

InRange TV continues this interesting bit of history with 6 more videos

2:  What food one gets in a week

3:  Cooking to deal with the rations

4: the National Loaf; that is how bread was rationed

5: More nuts and bolts of the rationing system

6: Where Cafeterias and Restaurants fit in with the system

7:  Black Markets and booze

8: Conclusions

What's interesting is to see that for such a system to work certain levels of competence, fairness, and acceptance are needed on the level of the goverment at a minimum.

First the state has to make sure the system actually runs and that there is food available.  That is if a product is being rationed then having it available in some level is vital.  As is ensuring that people can actually live on the rations provided.

Second the system has to at least attempt to minimize the whole "shut up prole know your place" sentiment that is pretty eternal. Where the connected and well to do, especially if those people are the ones running the system,  can still gorge themselves on whatever they want.  (That said given game one harvested was not rationed, and hunting in the UK is very much a well-to-do pursuit...)

Third is acceptance.   Teetotalers and prohibitionists pushed for Lord Woolton, the man running the system, to ban alcohol in England. (Their argument was that grains used in booze could be better used in food) Woolton pointed out that asking workers who where already increasing their hours and lessening the variety of their food, to also give up all booze would cause riots.


One can see that  in today's world of  state governments that can't even keep a lottery self-funding,  goverment health organizations that enact polities that increase obesity,  where well to do bolivators and goverment mandarins take private jets to exotic locations to lecture on how the proles should have less electricity, and demand policies that seem to be driven out of spitefully denying people simple joys....

Well,  competence, fairness, and acceptance are in short supply. 

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