Seventy Years Ago: Wartime Rationing

I have written before about rationing. It pervaded our lives during World War II and it involved an enormous organization to plan and control the economy to insure a successful war effort. The "magic of the marketplace" wasn't up to the task.

Economist Brad DeLong provides a link to a detailed explanation of how it worked. World War II truly mobilized all of our national assets.

Was this trip necessary? Yes it was.

On a personal note, I was ten years old before I learned to ride a bicycle. They weren't available during the war. When bicycles came back on the market in 1947, my grandfather bought one and drove 125 miles from Tulsa to Oklahoma City to deliver it on my tenth birthday.