Sunday Sermon: in praise of rationing

It’s interesting that when you hear people talking about the war (the Second World War, not the current ones) something they often mention is the hardship of rationing. When did we start seeing rationing as a bad thing? My grandma thought wartime rationing was great. Bringing up five kids, with her husband away, it guaranteed a standard of living she never had in the thirties.

Rationing did not just deny people the ability to have more than their fair share in a time of scarcity; it also guaranteed that everyone had enough. During a national crisis it was a measure that said everyone was still entitled to the basics of life, and it worked.

Today we’ve started to see anything that denies us the right to consume as much as we want as some sort of hateful attack on our human rights, akin to Pol Pot’s killing fields. However, it’s just rational to understand that if we continue to insulate the atmosphere at the current rate things will get a touch uncomfortable.

If I continually put on jumpers demanding my right to wear as many jumpers as I like it shouldn’t come as a surprise when I get really hot. If we clog the air with thick gases the effect might be rather similar, with just as messy consequences.

The current system of rationing that we use is called money. If you can’t lay your hands on enough units, you can’t purchase the goods you want. This system doesn’t guarantee that everyone has enough and it pretends we live in a magical fairyland where there are no limits, especially if you have a fully functioning credit card.

A more rational system could kill two birds with one stone (which you might need to do, if stones were rationed). We could ensure everyone has somewhere to stay, something to eat and at least one decent party dress. We could also ensure that those items that are most polluting (because they’ve been shipped a long way, they’re made of toxic substances or they use lots of energy) don’t get produced in such numbers that they damage our long-term interests.

Less pollution, less inequality, everyone with a bed to sleep in. I say we do away with money rationing and create a world with a more transparent rationing would be fairer, create clean air incentives and rehabilitate a word that’s fallen into disrepute.