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>Why do you think governments went to rationing during war time? I doubt it was to help individual citizens and families survive a crisis.

• hef19898 7y ago
  That was exactly the reason. To not let the non-fighting part of the population die and keep the army in fighting shape.
• realusername 7y ago
  That was exactly the reason, if you don't do rationing in extreme events, people start to mass panic buy everything and then you would have people starving. There's absolutely no "free market" anymore during panic.
  • derefr 7y ago
    I believe you, but is there a good example of a time when this happened and a bunch of people died of starvation? (I assume there’d be plenty of them, since rationing isn’t a very obvious idea.)
  • AnthonyMouse 7y ago
    > That was exactly the reason, if you don't do rationing in extreme events, people start to mass panic buy everything Which is what pricing is for. If people start hoarding then the price goes up and makes hoarding much more expensive. Not only that, it gives the people with a stockpile a financial incentive to put it on eBay and thereby make it available for distribution to other people. Unless they're prohibited from doing so, in which case they carry on hoarding.