# Thought experiment - WWII-ish rationing today **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2023, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-wwii-ish-rationing-today/982623 "2023-04-13T13:07:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-wwii-ish-rationing-today/982623/61 "2023-04-15T12:31:55Z")
I work in a grocery store, and did so during covid. I very much do understand what you’re talking about. I also think that food, and producing one’s own food, is different than, say, rationing gasoline or car parts or clothing. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-wwii-ish-rationing-today/982623/62 "2023-04-15T19:22:47Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > If we lose an aircraft carrier to enemy action, the United States will, next day, be a different country. > > Or maybe not. By 1943, the USA would build two more for each lost. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-wwii-ish-rationing-today/982623/63 "2023-04-15T19:27:32Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > If we tell Americans that they can’t buy certain things because the sacrifice serves a higher social goal (such as a justified war), and that they should consider gardening to make up the shortfall, I promise you with 100% certainty that 100 million of them will not only oppose starting their own garden, but will make a conscious effort to trample the gardens of others. I was going to suggest that there would be a difference in Little Rock and Brooklyn, where the difference is (alluded to by Broomstick) available land and experience in having grown vegetables, but you make it sound like the attitude held by plenty of rural January sixers. I would hope that the most violence here would be shooting and eating the squirrels who enjoy stealing tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-wwii-ish-rationing-today/982623/64 "2023-04-15T22:02:30Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Given that corn is a feed crop and produces ethanol, I wonder if HFCS would be rationed and sugar not as much. Yeah but the US grows a whole lotta corn and we export mega-tons. I suspect the exports would be curtailed a great deal which might leave enough for a big war effort _and_ a reasonable supply for the folks at home. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2023, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-wwii-ish-rationing-today/982623/65 "2023-04-15T22:05:06Z")
What if this was 1930 and we had this discussion? Americans were then sour on World War I, and I think that most would poo-poo the possibility of our accepting mandatory rationing. By late 1940, center-left discussants, traumatized by the Fall of France (what a phase!), and the blitz, might be saying that rationing will need to considered, with both the right and far-left still saying it would be both wrong and impossible. The obvious truth is that homo sapiens has not evolved over the past eighty years. What has changed isn’t our nature, but circumstances, and circumstances can change again. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-wwii-ish-rationing-today/982623/66 "2023-04-16T19:51:48Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > By 1943, the USA would build two more for each lost. Drachinifel has mentioned the “_Essex_ 3-D printer.” When the Victory Garden program started my grandfather got the tools and stuff, then planted strawberries. “It helps my morale,” he said. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thought-experiment-wwii-ish-rationing-today/982623.md?page=3)